


Roxas, Captain America, and Vanitas: The Winter Soldier

by The_Unlimited



Series: Light and Avengers [4]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Kingdom Hearts, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Add in of new characters, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Gen, I never learned what the hell I'm doing, OC Vanitas, during Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-27
Updated: 2020-06-06
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:20:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 45,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24398641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Unlimited/pseuds/The_Unlimited
Summary: Stumbling onto a new world for a mission for the Organization, Roxas is incredibly surprised to find a man in a weird looking red white and blue outfit carrying a shield. He's even more surprised to find out Vanitas knows this person... well, not that surprised. Before long, the two of them end up being a part of a large ploy where they're pitted against a super soldier with a metal arm, a previously thought destroyed organization more wicked than his own, an angry guy with one eye, and another guy with a suit giving him metal bird wings. Such is the life of a Keyblade wielder... apparently
Relationships: Avengers Team & Roxas, Avengers Team & Vanitas (Kingdom Hearts), James "Bucky" Barnes & Steve Rogers, Roxas & Vanitas (Kingdom Hearts), Steve Rogers & Natasha Romanov, Steve Rogers & Sam Wilson
Series: Light and Avengers [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1479848
Comments: 18
Kudos: 16





	1. Meeting the Captain

**Author's Note:**

> And now we're at one of the best ones in the series of the MCU. This is gonna be sweet

Roxas walked through the dark corridor with slight trepidation. Usually when he went through these things to worlds he didn't know of, they gave him a little background information about the world, and a few hints about where the target was sighted. Not this time, though. All they told him was that there was a strong dark presence on this world that had to be eliminated. That was it. No clues about what the world was like, or who the inhabitants were. This was completely different protocol, and he didn't know what he was supposed to do.

Taking in his surroundings, Roxas was actually a little surprised. From the looks of it, he was in a hallway leading to a railing that was on the outside of something. Metal walls surrounded him, which was a new sensation for him. He didn't exactly know what the walls in the Castle that Never Was were made of, so he wasn't used to being in a place with surroundings as flashy as this.

The sound of something collapsing outside garnered his attention. Roxas followed the hallway out onto the side ledge. Below him was a sight that was pretty unusual.

A man in a blue and white suit with brown straps holding a circular shield was in combat with a man with weird short hair, wearing a lot of gear over a purple long sleeve shirt. Roxas watched as the guy in blue deflected a lot of the man in purple's punches and kicks before grabbing him and throwing him forwards. The man then did multiple backflips away from the man in blue before the two of them faced each other, breathing in and out.

The man in purple said something in a language Roxas didn't recognize, which made the man in blue strap his shield on his back. He then pulled the mask off of his face, revealing his sandy hair. He then countered in that same language that Roxas still didn't recognize.

The sandy haired man dropped his mask to the ground, and the two men ran to each other, ready. They each punched at each other while the man in purple kicked, but he wasn't doing so well, as evident by the sandy haired man pushing him back. The man in purple ran at the sandy haired man but got kicked twice, which must have hurt a lot, because he cried out in pain. He then did a backflip which knocked out the man in purple with a downwards kick.

"Holy crap!" Roxas softly exclaimed to himself.

Unfortunately, he leaned too far over the ledge he was on, which did not have a railing for protection. Roxas' foot slipped, and he called out as he fell to the ground, hard. He groaned out in pain as he propped himself up onto his elbows, and looked up, seeing that his landing had garnered the attention of the sandy haired man.

"Who the hell are you?" the man asked, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "And how did a kid like you get all the way out..."

The man then looked to see the black coat the boy was wearing, and his eyes grew a realization like he was meeting an enemy.

"You're Organization XIII," the sandy haired man announced, grabbing his shield with his left hand.

Roxas slowly but surely stood up, already getting an idea about where this was heading.

"You got a problem with that?" Roxas asked, doing his best to do the taunting voice Vanitas had taught him. He hoped it worked.

"What are your plans for this world?" the sandy haired man asked, fierce-fulness in his voice.

"I don't have any," Roxas admitted. "I'm just looking for someone I need to stop."

"You're not gonna get away with that on my watch," the sandy haired man informed him, determination in his voice. "You'll have to go through me."

Roxas raised an eyebrow at the man in front of him.

 _Not necessarily what I expected for a dark presence_ , he thought. _But appearances can be deceiving._

"That can be arranged," Roxas remarked, remembering the lessons Vanitas taught him of comebacks to people's threats.

Roxas summoned his Keyblade, which was changed from a Kindgom Key with one of the keychains he had gotten earlier. The sandy haired man looked a little surprised to see a weapon he didn't recognize appear out of thin air, but he shrugged it off quickly.

Roxas ran forwards and slashed his Keyblade at the man's head, but he ducked. The man countered by smacking his shield into Roxas' side, knocking him back a bit. He quickly recuperated and jumped up as the much taller sandy haired man tried swinging his shield at him again. In the air, Roxas used an aerial combo to attack the sandy haired man, managing to do a bit of damage before he landed on the ground again.

The sandy haired man swung his shield at Roxas, which he dodged by rolling on the ground. He rolled a bit more on the ground as he dodged the man's attacks before he ended up behind the man.

"Gather!" Roxas yelled as he cast Magnera in the air, which picked up the sandy haired man in surprise.

"Thunder!" Roxas exclaimed as he sent a large bolt of lightning up into the air that shocked the man in the aerial magnet.

The man exclaimed in pain as the magnet magic wore off and dropped him to the ground. But practicing with Thor had made him a bit more immune to some electric attacks. Some, not all.

The sandy haired man turned and threw his shield at Roxas, and he sidestepped to the left to dodge it. Roxas laughed as the shield bumped into the wall behind him, then flew back towards his head. The shield hit Roxas in the head, hurting him a bit as it flew back into the hand of the sandy haired man. The sandy haired man pulled back his shield arm in preparation for an attack. Roxas rolled out of the way as the man slammed his shield onto the ground right where Roxas was moments ago.

Now on his side, Roxas kicked the man in the chest, which hurt his foot more than it did the man's chest. He then raised his Keyblade up above his head while getting up on his knees. He tried bringing his weapon down on the sandy haired man, but he raised his shield in preparation to block the attack.

The two then rolled backwards away from each other, and faced each other once again, ready for more fighting. The two got up on their feet and started walking towards each other...

Then gunfire erupted from somewhere, hitting the ground in front of Roxas' feet and stopping him in his tracks. The same thing happened to the sandy haired man, which surprised him as well as it did Roxas.

The two looked up to where the gunfire had originated to see a familiar scarred faced ravenette wearing blue pants and a grey, v-neck shirt and a sling strapped over his back. A micro Uzi was in each of his hands, which he rested on his shoulders as he started to walk towards the two.

"Vanitas?" Roxas and the sandy haired man asked at once, each one confusing the other.

"It just kills me to see two of my friends fighting," Vanitas announced, sliding his Uzis back into his sling.

"You know this guy?" Roxas asked, gesturing to the sandy haired man with his free hand.

"You know _this_ guy?" the sandy haired man asked, gesturing to Roxas with his shield hand.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Roxas asked, offended.

"Watch it," Roxas informed the both of them. He pointed upwards with each hand, before pointing them at each of his allies. "Right, introductions. Roxas, the nice member of Organization XIII, meet Steve Rogers. Steve Rogers, the possibly gay Captain America, this is Roxas."

"This is Roxas?" Steve asked, surprised. He then looked at Roxas' Keyblade, and his eyes widened in realization and embarrassment. "Oh... that's a Keyblade."

"He knows about Keyblades?" Roxas asked Vanitas.

"This world is a bit different than what you're used to," Vanitas admitted.

"You're telling me," Roxas commented, eyebrow raised at Steve's Captain America outfit.

"Roxas, what the hell are you doing here?" Vanitas asked his blonde friend.

"I'm on a mission to take out a dark presence," Roxas informed him. "They didn't give me any information on where to look, though, or even what the people of this world are like. They just sent me here and expected me to find it on my own."

"That's it?" Steve asked, eyebrows raised in surprise. "No offense, but your bosses sound like they're bad at their jobs of giving you missions."

"Today, they are," Roxas admitted.

Roxas dismissed his Keyblade and looked over Steve's shoulder to see the guy in purple slowly stirring and pushing himself onto his feet.

"Hey, that guy's awake," Roxas informed Steve.

Steve turned towards the man in purple and charged at him. He tackled the man across the remaining bit of floor and the two crashed through the door into a room with many computers and a filing cabinet.

"You know, you and he might get along pretty well," Vanitas informed Roxas as they walked after Steve at a leisurely pace. "You don't understand anything about this world, and... he was frozen for 70 years, so he doesn't understand anything about it, either."

"You sure it'd be all right to try to become friends with him?" Roxas asked. "We _did_ just fight."

"Oh, _come on_ ," Vanitas assured him in a reassuring voice. "If I didn't try to make friends with half the people who's asses I've kicked, I wouldn't have any friends."

Roxas chuckled slightly at that as they entered the room Steve was in. He was kneeling down on the man he tackled and punched him in the face to knock him out.

"Well, this is awkward," a familiar female voice called out on their left.

The three men looked to see Natasha Romanoff leaning over a computer, clacking at keys and smiling slightly at them before going back to work.

"Hey, Nat," Vanitas waved. "This is Roxas. Roxas, this is Natasha Romanoff, the Black Widow. (whispers) Yeah, she's pretty hot, but she knows twelve different ways to kill you."

"Seventeen," Natasha corrected him, which would have made him blush if he had a life force.

"Black Widow, Captain America," Roxas muttered back. "Does everyone here have a long, meaningful nickname?"

"What are you doing?" Steve asked as the three started walking down the row of computers towards her.

"Backing up the hard drive," Natasha explained as Steve looked down at the man below him to make sure he was unconscious. "It's a good habit to get into."

"Rumlow needed your help," Steve informed her. "What the hell are you doing here?"

The three had were now next to her, and were able to see the various schematics on the big screens in front of Natasha that had various bits of information going in places they didn't understand. But when they saw a loading icon slowly reach 80%, Vanitas and Steve figured it out.

"Your saving SHIELD intel," Steve announced.

"Whatever I can get my hands on," Natasha remarked.

"I thought this was a rescue mission?" Vanitas asked.

"It is," Steve informed him. He looked at Natasha in an accusatory manner. "And our mission is to rescue hostages."

"No, that's your mission..." Natasha countered. The information finished uploading and she pulled a flash drive out of the main system before facing Steve with another slight smile on her face. "...And you've done it beautifully." She raised an eyebrow at Vanitas and Roxas. "He wasn't even on this mission, and, I don't even know what he's doing here..."

Roxas started to explain as she started to walk past them, but then Steve grabbed her arm to stop her.

"You just jeopardized this whole operation," Steve accused.

"You done fucked up, Nat," Vanitas added.

"I think that's overstating things," Natasha remarked.

Rustling behind them garnered their attentions to the man Steve had thought he knocked out. The man was running towards the empty doorframe and threw a grenade at them. Roxas, Natasha, and Vanitas moved aside as Steve knocked the grenade out of the air with is shield. He then followed them as they climbed up onto the tables and ran towards a nearby office. Steve and Natasha gripping each other and Roxas and Vanitas gripping each other, Natasha shot the window and the two groups jumped through the shattering window as the grenade went off.

They landed on the floor with the glass and broken wood as the fire from the grenade encased the room, covering most of the floor and making a lot of smoke go up into the air. The four gritted their teeth as they crawled across the floor to the shattered remains of the window. Steve and Vanitas looked up through the window into the room that was on fire before lowering back down to their friends' level. The four panted in and out, still a little drained from the explosion.

"Okay," Natasha said. She looked over at Steve and Vanitas, the former not even trying to hide the irritation on his face as he kept his eyes closed. "That one's on me."

"You're damn right," Steve remarked.

"Like I said," Vanitas added. "You done fucked up."

"What the hell is going on?" Roxas asked, hopelessly confused.

"Steve, you wanna help me fill in the blanks?" Vanitas asked. "I don't really know everything, either."

"Fine," Steve informed them, standing up. "Just try to keep up."

The two teens followed Steve out of the room, leaving Natasha alone. She continued panting from the blast as she stared after them with slightly furrowed eyebrows before looking down with her eyes closed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, Vanitas met the Avengers by fighting Iron Man and Thor. Who says Roxas can't meet them by fighting the remaining member of the big three?  
> Also, if you think Steve was a little mean with automatically seeing Roxas as an enemy because of the Organization XIII thing, Sora, Donald, and Goofy did pretty much the same thing through most of the series. Whenever anything strange or bad went wrong in II, they just automatically blamed it on Organization XIII, which is a little rude. Sure, they're evil and manipulative, but that doesn't mean they're responsible for everything


	2. Project Insight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roxas, Vanitas, and Steve learn about Project Insight from Nick Fury, then step away to greet some friends of Steve's. Unbeknownst to them, dark forces are brewing right under their noses

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also, I answer why they didn't try to use the Keyblade at the end of the first Avengers. (Celene)

Steve led the two out of the boat and brought them with his STRIKE team to the SHIELD headquarters, the Triskelion, in Washington DC. Along the way, they explained some of the customs and tricks of the world to Roxas. They explained that SHIELD monitored the global security of this world, and that there was a special team called the Avengers that took care of the more, other worldly threats.

"Does that include Heartless?" Roxas asked as they sat on the plane.

"Oh, yeah," Vanitas assured him. "About two years ago on this world, there was a huge alien invasion, where these pricks called the Chitari teamed up with Heartless and tried to destroy the city of New York. Cap here, Natasha, and I were part of the Avengers, and we managed to stop them. We had another friend that could use a Keyblade, and part of the plan was for him to use it to try to break the connection of the portal. But then we decided not to use that, because..."

He trailed off as he realized he didn't even know.

"Wait, why didn't we try to use the Keyblade?" Vanitas asked Steve next to him.

"Well, when that was going on," Steve explained. "We still weren't entirely sure that the Keyblade would have worked. But like Natasha told us, Selvig confirmed that the staff Loki had _would_ work. So, she figured that with how bad the situation was to first go with the option we knew would work, instead of the option that we didn't know would work."

Roxas and Vanitas nodded their heads, even though Roxas didn't understand what they were talking about.

"Okay, that makes sense," Vanitas admitted.

"There was another person with a Keyblade?" Roxas asked.

"Oh, yeah, he's a friend," Vanitas informed him. "But we won't be able to get his help anytime soon. He's in a coma."

Roxas furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

"What happened to you and Xion," Vanitas elaborated. "Fell asleep for a very long period of time."

Roxas nodded again, this time in more of an understanding manner.

"But, really," he started again, waving his hands to elaborate his point. "Are you sure it's all right that we stayed here for a night? If I spend too long on a mission..."

"You'll be okay," Vanitas assured him. "Time works in really weird ways between worlds. I've spent a few days here while waiting for your next mission before. You could probably spend, like, a week here, and only one day will pass for everyone else."

Roxas looked down and nodded his head again, no doubt still a little nervous about that.

"I guess that explains how you were here in the 90's," Steve remarked. "But only a decade passed for you."

"Yeah," Vanitas admitted. "I still don't know how I know Fury, though."

"Well, maybe you'll get a reminder in a little bit," Steve informed him, anger in his voice. "'Cause we're going right to see him."

Once they got off the ship, Steve led them out and through the tall ceilinged, pretty elaborately decorated hallways of the base. Both Roxas and Vanitas were impressed since neither of them had seen this place before. Steve led them into Fury's office, which had a lot of chairs, tall lamps, and a large flat screen television, which was probably more for business than pleasure, as evidence by the many different bits of information going along the monitor. Nick Fury himself was sitting at a desk, looking out to the large windows next to him at the city in the skyline.

"You just can't stop yourself from lying, can you?" Steve accused as the three of them walked up to Nick's desk.

"I didn't lie," Fury re-butted, still staring out of the window. "Agent Romanoff had a different mission than yours."

"Which you didn't feel obliged to share," Steve countered as they reached the desk, facing the man. Roxas was visibly surprised at the man wearing an eyepatch.

"That's kind of something you should do when assigning missions, Nick," Vanitas added, even though he didn't like agreeing with the captain. He respected the man, but felt he was too much of a goody-two-shoes. (There was only enough room in his life for three goody-two-shoes he could bear, and they were asleep.)

"I'm not obliged to do anything," Fury remarked.

"Those hostages could have died, Nick," Steve informed him.

During his next words, Fury sat up and faced them.

"I sent the greatest soldier in history to make sure that didn't happen," he remarked. He looked at Vanitas and Roxas. "And one of SHIELD's oldest allies butted in with his friend that looks like he's a member of a cult."

Roxas waved awkwardly and muttered, "Hi, I'm Roxas..." while looking down in embarrassment.

"Soldiers trust each other," Steve informed the director. "That's what makes it an army. Not a bunch of guys running around shooting guns."

"Last time I trusted someone, I lost an eye," Fury countered, standing up and leaning forwards on his desk at to look Steve in the eye.

Vanitas furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. While he was sure that he didn't remember Fury at all from his life as a Keyblade Master, the man's words felt wrong here. The way he said that, makes it sound like there was a gigantic betrayal of trust in some epic battle or something, to sound intimidating. Which worked, because Roxas looked genuinely surprised. But subconsciously, Vanitas knew that that wasn't how Fury lost his eye. Sure, he couldn't remember how it happened, but he knew it wasn't something like that.

Steve, however, didn't have any words for the man's claim, so he stayed silent with the two short world travellers.

"Look, I didn't want you doing anything you were uncomfortable with," Fury informed him. "Agent Romanoff is comfortable with everything."

"Mighty considerate of you," Vanitas commented, sarcastically, while Steve just looked more annoyed at the man's words.

"I can't lead a mission when the people I'm leading have missions of their own," Steve announced.

"Even _I_ know that sounds like a complicated AF mission," Roxas commented. "And I don't even lead missions."

"It's called compartmentalization," Fury rationed as Steve placed his hands on his hips. "Nobody spills the secrets, because nobody knows them all."

"Except you," Steve remarked, annoyed smirk on his face that Vanitas remembered from two years prior.

Fury stood up straight and sighed out with his eye closed.

"You're wrong about me," he announced. "I do share. I'm nice like that. Hell, if he could remember..." He gestured to Vanitas. "...He could tell you all about it."

"Working on that," Vanitas informed him, shrugging his shoulders.

Fury led the three of them to an elevator, and the four of them walked inside the high tech contraption.

"Insight bay," Fury announced.

The screen next to the door ran through the identities of the four people having just entered the elevator. It showed that Fury had level 10 access, Steve had level 8, Vanitas apparently had level 9, and Roxas was remarked as unidentifyable.

" _Captain Rogers and newcomer do not have clearance for Project Insight_ ," the computer AI announced.

"Director override," Fury informed the computer. "Fury, Nicholas J."

" _Confirmed._ " the computer AI announced before sliding the doors shut.

The elevator started sliding down, surprising Roxas a bit. The elevator he used in the Castle that Never Was was much bigger and a bit more advanced looking. Plus, there weren't buttons. You just stepped on the elevator and it went either up or down.

"So who's Roxas, and why are you here?" Fury asked the Nobody.

Roxas was a little surprised by the sudden request from the director, but shook it off.

"I'm a Keyblade wielder from Organization XIII," Roxas explained. "As V once said, I'm one of the actual nice members. I'm on this world as part of a mission to take out a powerful dark presence. I don't know where to look, though."

"SHIELD has incredible resources," Fury informed him. "We'll let you know if something comes up. The less dark presences on this world, the better."

"Thanks," Roxas said, looking at the floor as silence passed among the elevator.

"You know, they used to play music," Steve remarked, talking about the elevator they were in.

"Yeah," Fury agreed. He looked up. "My grandfather operated one of these things for 40 years." He looked at them. "My granddad worked in a nice building. Got good tips. He'd walk home every night, a roll of ones stuffed in his lunch bag. He'd say 'Hi.' People would say, 'Hi' back. Time went on, the neighborhood got rougher."

Nick continued as Roxas looked confused.

"He'd say, 'Hi,'" he continued. "They'd say, 'Keep on steppin'.' Granddad got to gripping that lunch bag a little tighter."

"Did he ever get mugged?" Steve asked.

Nick chuckled at the memory as their elevator got closer to the ground.

"Every week, some punk would say, 'What's in the bag?'" he continued.

"What would he do?" Steve asked.

"He'd show them," Fury informed them as the elevator then led them underground, surprising Roxas a bit. "Bunch of crumpled ones, and a loaded .22 Magnum."

"That's a good gun," Vanitas commented, also noticing the change around the elevator.

The elevator then started bringing them into a large chamber, as Steve nodded slowly at Fury's story.

"Yeah, Granddad loved people," Fury admitted, walking between Steve and Vanitas as he stared out the glass of the elevator. "But he didn't trust them very much."

Steve looked down before looking out the elevator glass. His eyes widened as he turned to look out the glass with the other three, his, Roxas's, and Vanitas's jaws all dropping slightly.

"Yeah, I know," Fury informed them. "They're a little big bigger than a .22."

The chamber the elevator was lowering them into was a gigantic hanger, where three more SHIELD helicarriers were under construction. And from the looks of things, construction was nearing completion. Quinjets were stored on the tops with giant cranes and people directing them, and metal bearings held the gigantic carriers up into the air. What separated these helicarriers from the main one was that these three were slightly smaller, and had about half a dozen large mounted guns on the lower parts.

"This is Project Insight," Fury explained to the surprised trio as they walked along the ground, letting them see the ships from the bottom. "Three next-generation helicarriers synced to a network of targeting satellites."

"Launched from Lemurian Star," Steve assessed as they passed many people at work.

"Badass," Vanitas commented as Roxas nodded in agreement.

"Once we get them into the air, they never need to come back down," Fury continued explaining. "Continuous sub-orbital flight, courtesy of our new repulsor engines."

He gestured to a one of the engines on one of the large carriers.

"Stark?" Steve asked.

"He had a few suggestions once he got an up-close look at our old turbines," Fury informed them.

"Oh, yeah, I remember helping him and Bruce work on that," Vanitas admitted.

They reached a mechanism that moved them along above the ground, which meant they could see the bottom of the center of one of the three ships, and they saw that there were dozens of large blasters attached there.

"These new long-range precision guns can eliminate 1,000 hostiles a minute," Fury continued as the four turned around to get a better look on the still moving mechanism. "The satellites can read a terrorist's DNA before he steps outside his spider hole."

"What's a terrorist?" Roxas asked.

"Someone who means to cause a great deal of harm to a lot of people for specific reasons," Vanitas informed him. "Heartless are pretty much magical terrorists."

Roxas nodded his head in understanding once again.

"We're gonna neutralize a lot of threats before they even happen," Fury informed them.

"Thought the punishment usually came after the crime," Steve commented.

"That's usually how it works," Vanitas added.

"We can't afford to wait that long," Fury remarked.

"Who's 'we'?" Steve asked.

"After New York, I convinced the World Security Council we needed a quantum surge in threat analysis," Fury explained. "For once, we're way ahead of the curve."

"I will admit," Vanitas remarked, looking up at the helicarrier above them with Nick and Steve. "This is a better option than just trying to drop a nuke on a city after things go tits-up. But..."

"Ahead of the curve is holding a gun to everyone on Earth and calling it protection," Steve finished for him, causing Fury to frown slightly.

"You know, I read those SSR files," Fury informed Steve. "'Greatest Generation?' You guys did some nasty stuff. And you weren't exactly the cleanest back in the 90's, V."

"Yeah, we compromised," Steve admitted. "Sometimes in ways that made us not sleep so well. But we did it so that people could be free."

"What's he talking about?" Roxas whispered to Vanitas.

"Things weren't so great on this world 70 years ago," Vanitas whispered back.

"This isn't freedom," Steve continued, gesturing to the helicarriers. "This is fear."

"SHIELD takes the world how it is, not as we'd like it to be," Fury informed them. "And it's getting damn near past time for you to get with that program, Cap."

"Don't hold you breath," Steve informed him.

He turned and started walking down the mechanism to the exit, followed by Vanitas and Roxas. They followed him to a locker room like area, where Steve changed back into civilian clothes, and Vanitas followed his example. He kept his grey V neck shirt on, but slipped on a red and black not leather motorcycle jacket he had and some jeans. He had made one of the pockets of the jacket bigger on the inside, which he used to store his sling away. The two of them met with Roxas again and started walking to the exit.

"Hey, what's SKINO?" Roxas asked, gesturing to the words in red on Vanitas' arms and back. "Or... SKIND?"

"I don't know, either," Vanitas admitted. "I went to another version of Earth and met some high schooler named Julian. We found these jackets, his in blue with white, and this one in red and black. We both thought they looked cool and split the bill on them."

"Did he know what it meant?" Steve asked.

"Not really," Vanitas admitted.

Vanitas rented a SHIELD vehicle, and he and Roxas followed Steve on his motorcycle out of the complex. They figured it would be a good idea to stick with a friend for a while since they were busy.

Interested on learning more about him, Roxas readily agreed to following the captain to the Smithsonian museum where they would be viewing the exhibit about his time in the army.

With Steve wearing a hat to try to disguise his identity, Vanitas and Roxas followed him through the museum into the exhibit, where Roxas got the cliff notes. He learned about how he was a scrawny kid from Brooklyn only two inches taller than him and Vanitas that had the super soldier serum injected into him, now making Steve the six foot two guy that towered over the two.

Roxas took in the information with amazement while Steve and Vanitas noticed a kid wearing a shirt with the Captain America sign on it staring at Steve in recognition. Steve smiled at the kid before doing a "shush"-ing gesture. The boy nodded his head as the three walked into the further parts of the exhibit, seeing stock video footage of Steve in action back in the war.

They even found the exhibit showing the backboard of Captain America and his Howling Commandos, with statues wearing the outfits the team wore during their time. It was here that Vanitas got his first ever look at Steve's old friend, Bucky Barnes, who had apparently fallen off a cliff during a mission.

Roxas then learned about how the team had been trying to take down a Nazi science division called HYDRA, before also learning about Bucky and his tragic story. As Steve looked over the information about Bucky in sorrow, Roxas felt sympathy for the super soldier. He knew what it was like to be "inseparable" with someone thanks to his time with Xion, Axel, and Vanitas. He couldn't imagine what he'd be like if he lost any of them. Seeing that Steve had lost someone exactly like that to him, made Roxas sad for him. Roxas reached up and patted Steve on the shoulder in sympathy, followed by Vanitas, who knew exactly that feeling. Steve nodded his head in thanks at the two.

They then watched a video about agent Peggy Carter, who had served with Steve and was apparently a founding member of SHIELD. In the video, she explained a large accomplishment that Steve had made against HYDRA, saving 1,000 men including the man she'd marry. During this, Steve looked down and took out his compass, which had a picture of her in the top part.

At Roxas' confused expression, Vanitas thought, _They were supposed to go on a date, but he got frozen for 70 years._ Thankfully, the surprised look on Roxas' face confirmed that he heard it. Good. It would have been very embarrassing if some random person in the audience heard that in their head instead of Roxas.

They then sympathetically joined Steve on his latest visit to the now older Peggy Carter after he explained the condition she suffered from in her new old age. They made quick introductions to the old lady who laid in the bed, who was amazed at meeting Vanitas, the man who helped out SHIELD in the past.

 _I can probably relate to her on the memory problem_ , Vanitas thought to Roxas, hoping that'd relieve some tension.

"You should be proud of yourself, Peggy," Steve informed her as he sat in a chair next to her bed and looked at pictures of the woman with her kids on the table top in front of him.

"Mmm," Peggy muttered before looking at Steve. "I have lived a life. My only regret is that you didn't get to live yours."

"Well," Vanitas said. "We're working to make sure his current life is... a little interesting."

Steve and Roxas smirked slightly at that before the former looked down and stayed silent for a bit.

"What is it?" Peggy asked.

Steve was silent for another second.

"For as long as I can remember, I just wanted to do what was right," Steve softly answered. "I guess I'm not quite sure what that is anymore."

He was silent for a second.

"And I thought I could throw myself back in and follow orders. Serve," Steve continued. He smiled at Peggy. "It's just not the same."

Peggy laughed.

"You're always so dramatic," she commented while laughing.

"You have no idea, lady," Vanitas smirked.

The small group smiled for a second.

"Look, you saved the world," Peggy reminded Steve, right before he looked at her again. "We rather... mucked it up."

"You didn't," Steve informed her. "Knowing you helped found SHIELD is half the reason I stay."

"Even though I know nothing of this world, that's a pretty big accomplishment," Roxas commented.

Peggy nodded her head in thanks at the blonde before looking at Steve again.

"Hey," she softly said before taking his hand in hers. "The world has changed, and none of us can go back. All we can do is our best. And sometimes the best that we can do is to start over."

She started coughing, so Steve got up to get her a glass of water. While he did, Vanitas reflected on the woman's words. They were kind of right in his regard. He couldn't go back, so he did his best, which included starting things differently thanks to Sora.

 _I guess age can sometimes mean_ wisdom, Vanitas thought as Steve sat back in his chair.

"Peggy," Steve softly said, holding the cup of water to her.

She opened her eyes and looked at him, surprise growing in her eyes. Roxas and Vanitas were both sure their hearts were melting in sadness, even though one was sure he didn't have one and the other's couldn't beat, as they realized what had happened.

"Steve," Peggy said in amazement as she stared at the sandy haired man.

"Yeah?" Steve asked, not getting it yet.

"You're alive," Peggy said in amazement that sounded like it was nearing tears, and Steve understood. "You came back."

"Yeah, Peggy," Steve smiled at her through his own sadness. At her confused expressions to the two younger boys, he looked at them then back at her. "These are my friends Roxas and Vanitas. They're starting out at SHIELD and wanted a chance to meet one of the founders in person."

"It's an honor," Roxas told her, remembering the instructions Vanitas gave him earlier.

"It truly is," Vanitas added, nodding his head as both boys kept in their sadness.

Peggy looked at Steve once again as tears started to build in her eyes.

"It's been so long," she slightly sobbed. "So long."

"Well, I couldn't leave my best girl," Steve informed her with a smile on his face. "Not when she owes me a dance."

The three boys did their best to hide their sadness as Steve continued to smile at Peggy.

* * *

Back in SHIELD headquarters, Fury was staring out his window at the city skyline once again for a few seconds.

"Secure office," he announced.

The windows suddenly went dark, blocking out the outside from him. Fury then took out the flash drive Natasha had given him and plugged it into a port on his desk.

"Open Lumerian Star's satellite launch file," Fury instructed.

" _Access denied_ ," the computer AI told him.

"Run decryption," Fury instructed as he walked down the back of his desk, watching the information processing on the screen in front of him.

After a few seconds, the computer AI informed him, " _Decryption failed._ "

"Director override," Fury tried again. "Fury, Nicholas J."

The computer took in the information, showing the right details on the screen. It then announced, " _Override denied. All files sealed._ "

"On whose authority?" Fury asked, confused.

" _Fury, Nicholas J,_ " the computer AI answered, confusing the man.

He then walked into the elevator and announced, "World security council."

" _Confirmed,_ " the computer AI on the elevator said.

Fury entered the floor and instructed Secretary Alexander Pierce's secretary to get him for him. Fury watched through glass as the secretary entered the room where Pierce was in a meeting with the Council, and whispered to him that Fury needed his attention. Fury watched as the projected images of the council turned off as Pierce walked through a doorway into the room, so he was now facing Fury.

"I work 40 floors away and it takes a hijacking for you to visit?" Pierce asked, walking over to Fury.

"A nuclear war would do it, too," Fury admitted as the two of them shook hands. They both took their hands back and he looked through the window to where the meeting had taken place. "You busy in there?"

"Nothing some earmarks can't fix," Pierce admitted, placing his hands in his pockets, similar to what Nick was doing.

Fury looked down and all around as he spoke his next words.

"I'm here to ask a favor," he admitted, finally looking the man in the face. "I want you to call for a vote. Project Insight has to be delayed."

"Nick, that's not a favor, that's a sub-committee hearing," Pierce commented. "A long one."

"It could be nothing," Fury admitted, nodding his head while looking to the side. "It probably is nothing. I... just need time to make sure it's nothing."

"But if it's something?" Pierce asked.

"Then we'll both be damn glad those helicarriers aren't in the air," Fury informed him.

Pierce was silent for a second as he thought about it.

"Fine," he relented. "But you gotta get Iron Man and Vanitas Jordan to stop by my niece's birthday party. We know that Jordan's on this world, too."

Fury nodded his head.

"Thank you, sir," he said, shaking the man's hand in thanks.

"Not just a flyby," Pierce elaborated. "They've got to mingle."

Pierce turned and walked away, leaving Fury alone. In his office, Pierce sighed out for a second before a familiar purple and black portal opened on the other end.

"Why are you here so soon?" Pierce asked in confusion. "Project Insight launches in a few days. You're a little early."

"I just want to make sure everything's running smoothly," the giant cat in front of him answered. "That army of Heartless is depending on it, after all."

"We have one complication," Pierce admitted, walking over to face Pete directly. "But I'll take care of it quickly. You don't have to worry about it."

"All right," Pete said, nodding his head. "But remember the consequences of what happens when things go wrong."

"Don't remind me," Pierce remarked. "I already saw enough with Jafar and Oogie Boogie. I know to keep steady, and not give in too much."

Pete nodded his head with a smile on his face before turning and walking back through the portal. Pierce sighed out as the portal closed.

"How did Maleficent ever recruit a bonehead like him?" he sighed out, annoyed.

* * *

Steve took Roxas and Vanitas to another building, where he said they were gonna meet a friend. They walked down hallways until they apparently found the place they were looking for.

"The thing is, I think it's getting worse," a woman's voice announced as the three got closer to a specific room. "A cop pulled me over last week. Thought I was drunk."

The three of them walked through open doors to find themselves in a room with many chairs facing a podium. A lot of people were sitting in the chairs, and a well dressed black man that Steve told them was named Sam Wilson was leaning over the podium. Everyone was listening as the woman continued her story.

"A PTSD support group," Vanitas explained to Roxas, who was confused. "Some people, when they go to war, they experience some pretty nasty shit. They get post-traumatic stress in their everyday lives. Little groups like this help them get the support to get over the pain and stress they feel from those parts."

"Some stuff you leave there," Sam explained to the woman who had finished explaining her experience. "Other stuff you bring back. It's our job to figure out how to carry it. Is it gonna be in a big suitcase, or in a little man-purse? It's up to you."

The group eventually let out, and the three met up with Sam outside as he walked away from a woman he was giving praise to.

"Look who it is, the running man," Sam greeted as he walked to a table to organize some fliers. "Along with two teens with crazy looking hair."

"This is Vanitas and Roxas," Steve introduced his friends. "They wanted to come."

"Call me V," Vanitas informed the man as Roxas waved.

"I don't... have a nickname," Roxas admitted.

"We caught the last few minutes," Steve informed him. "It's pretty intense."

"Yeah, brother, we all got the same problems," Sam told him, still organizing the pamphlets on the table. "Guilt, regret."

"You lose someone?" Steve asked.

"My wingman, Riley," Sam told them. "Flying on a night mission. Standard PJ rescue op. Nothing we hadn't done 1,000 times before. Until an RPG knocked Riley's dumb ass out of the sky. Nothing I could do. It's like I was up there just to watch."

"I know the feeling," Vanitas admitted. "I lost my friends, Terra, Ven, and Aqua. I don't remember what happened to them, but I remember the pain. And even though I can't remember... something tells me it was my fault."

"I'm sorry," Steve told the both of them.

"After that, I had a really hard time finding a reason for being over there, you know?" Sam admitted.

"I know that, too," Vanitas admitted. "After they got taken from me, I tried to distance myself from everything. I'm lucky I got out before it was too late."

Steve nodded his head at Vanitas before looking at Sam again.

"But you're happy now, back in the world?" Steve asked.

"The number of people giving me orders is down to about zero," Sam informed them, his arms crossed as he looked around a bit in thought. "So, hell yeah."

"Good philosophy," Roxas commented.

"Thanks," Sam smiled at Roxas before dropping it as he looked at Steve. "Are you thinking about getting out?"

"No," Steve told him before he thought for a second. "I don't know." He looked from Sam to the hallway next to them. "To be honest, I don't know what I would do with myself if I did."

"Ultimate fighting?" Sam suggested, causing the group to start laughing. "Just a great idea off the top of my head."

"Hey, I'd be your opponent," Vanitas added, causing the laughter to continue.

"Seriously, you could do whatever you want to do," Sam informed him. "What makes you happy?"

Steve looked at the wall for a second.

"I don't know," he admitted, looking at Sam again.

Roxas thought about that for a second. If even super heroes could do whatever they wanted to do, then could Nobodies do the same thing? He thought about it for a second before he shook his head. That kind of thinking was to be saved until after they finished Kingdom Hearts and he got his own heart. However long it took, he would get there.

One day.

(Guy on the end with the blue, white and grey jacket is Julian. Imagine the blue as black and the white as red, and you'll have the jacket Vanitas is wearing)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I figure this takes place in like, earlier 2014 on Earth 616. 'Cause, it'll still be 2014 when the Days story ends, and still be 2014 during II, cause during it is when they do Guardians of the Galaxy, and after II is when they do Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
> 
> Also, if you read the Return of the Living Dead story I'm doing... Yes, it's that Julian
> 
> Plus, Captain America: Civil War was actually the first MCU movie I ever saw, and my dad gave me that line, "They were supposed to go on a date, but he got frozen for 70 years," when I got confused about who Peggy Carter was, and why she was important to him


	3. New Threats

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roxas, Steve, and Vanitas discover the latest threats to the world

Once it got late enough, Vanitas parted from Roxas and Steve, and used his Vortex Manipulator to travel back to New York. Steve assured him that Roxas could stay the night at his apartment with him, and the next day, they would all go out searching for the dark presence Roxas was searching for. Nodding his head at the soldier, Vanitas teleported away, then was almost immediately sent out of the tower to get the pizza for the night.

He left the tower and decided to walk down the streets of New York to the pizza place. Since his Vortex Manipulator didn't have an infinite battery, he resolved to only use it for long distance travel. Going ten minutes down the street to get pizza didn't seem like enough to use up the battery on.

Along the way, of course Vanitas got attention from people on the streets. Even if the Battle of New York was almost two years ago, he still got a lot of praise for fighting for the city in it. Some gang members looked like they wanted to challenge him, but all he had to do was frown slightly at them and they would go running. His reputation of being a hard ass from those nine years on a rage conquest was finally coming in handy.

"Yes, Tony," Vanitas confirmed into his Smartphone as he walked into the pizza shop. "Supreme with green olives, Meat Lover's, and pineapple with stuffed crust. Last one's a little odd, but okay."

He turned it off and stood in line, waiting for his turn. People turned and gawked at the sight of Vanitas once again, so he nodded slightly in affirmation to them. One guy looked at him with rage in his eyes before looking down at the table. Vanitas guessed he was someone who blamed the Avengers for what happened at New York.

Vanitas had to admit, he wished there was something he could do to show those kinds of people that it wasn't there fault and they saved everyone they could, but he knew it would be no use. Lots of people in New York lost something or someone that day, and they needed someone to blame. And since the main two people to blame were either dead or hidden away on the other half of the galaxy, the Avengers were the next best option. Vanitas wished it didn't have to be like that, but he didn't see what he could do about it.

Distant screaming outside garnered the ravenette's attention. His Hero tendencies took over, and he gave up his spot in line and walked outside, curious. Looking around, Vanitas's attention was drawn to a sight that made his eyes widen.

The usual dark portals appeared in the air, depositing various flying Heartless, and three Commanders, adding to the Shadows and Large Body already on the ground.

Vanitas and people in the city watched in shock as a Commander plunged its claws into a woman's chest, and pull out her crystal looking heart. The woman's body vanished into darkness, and the heart turned into another flying Nocturnal Heartless.

Vanitas went to work as quickly as he could since his sling was in his jacket pocket. He pulled out two Desert Eagle handguns and aimed at the Heartless. He fired the guns one at a time, lowering one as it fired and raising the next one up to fire once the recoil was done. With the powerful handguns, he took out a Commander with one shot, followed by the Large Body and two Shadows. He turned his attention to the Nocturnals, and fired at them with his left handed Desert Eagle, taking them all out, and using the ammo in the handgun. With his remaining handgun, Vanitas turned and fired at the remaining two Commanders, before aiming at the ground and shooting the last Shadow, finishing off the group of Heartless.

Vanitas breathed in and out as he looked at where the Heartless had disappeared, not caring people around him were recording him with their Smartphones.

"This doesn't make any sense," he muttered. "There haven't been Heartless on this world since the battle almost two years ago. The only way they could have gotten here would be..."

Vanitas's eyes widened in realization. The only way Heartless could be here is if there was someone to control them. That dark presence Roxas was looking for must be more powerful than he thought.

He slipped one Desert Eagle into his pocket and replaced it with his Smartphone.

"Tony," Vanitas said once the other man answered. "You're gonna have to send a lab assistant to get the pizza. I gotta get moving to somewhere else. Sorry."

Vanitas put his phone back into his pocket and pressed the buttons on his Vortex Manipulator. He teleported away in a flash of light, preparing himself for any scenerio.

* * *

Back in D.C, Steve and Roxas had started up the stairs to the former's apartment, neither of them even knowing of the situation happening back in New York. Instead, Roxas was regaling Steve with stories about him and Vanitas on the way up the stairs.

"And then he just kept slamming our hands into the floor," Roxas added. "Like that was his way of having fun. Showing off his super strength to beat his friends at arm wrestling."

"If it makes you feel any better," Steve started telling him. "When I arm wrestled him once, I also struggled a bit against his strength."

"Really?" Roxas asked, eyes wide in surprise. "Then what happened?"

"I used my full strength," Steve answered, smile on his face. "I beat him in seconds and broke some of his hand."

"Nice," Roxas congratulated as they reached the right floor.

They waved at Steve's neighbor, who was leaving her apartment with a laundry basket in her arms and her phone held up to her ear by her shoulder. They walked past her, but Steve stopped and turned to face her when she ended the phone call. Curious, Roxas stopped and watched them.

"My aunt, she's kind of an insomniac," she told Steve, who smiled at her. She put her phone in her basket and looked down at it. "Yeah..."

"Hey, if you want..." Steve started to say, and even Roxas could hear the slight awkwardness in his voice. "If you want, you're welcome to use my machine. Might be cheaper than the one in the basement."

"Oh, yeah?" the girl asked, tilting her head to the side in interest. "What's it cost?"

"A cup of coffee?" Steve asked.

The girl smiled and looked down before looking up at him.

"Thank you, but um..." She started to say. "I already have a load in downstairs, and you don't really want my scrubs in your machine. I just washed a rotation in the infectious disease ward, so..."

"Ah," Steve nodded his head with a smile, while Roxas watched them both in confusion. "Well, I'll keep my distance."

"Well, hopefully not too far," she smiled back before noticing a confused Roxas staring at both of them. "Are you okay?"

"I'm confused," Roxas admitted, looking up at Steve. "Are these part of 'normal Somebody' customs?"

"Yeah, kind of," Steve informed him, both him and the girl smiling at Roxas's words.

The two turned towards the apartment, incredible relief on Roxas's face, while the woman started walking towards the stairs. Roxas started to take notice of some music playing when the woman stopped.

"Oh, and I think you left your stereo on," she called out to Steve.

"Oh," Steve said, looking up at her again. "Right, thank you."

The two smiled at each other before the woman started walking down the stairs.

"Was that flirting?" Roxas asked. "Because I don't think you did it right."

Steve waved a hand at Roxas to gesture him to stop talking, and leaned towards the door, now also hearing the 1940s music playing.

Following Steve's example, the two instead went onto the fire escape and entered Steve's apartment through a window. They creeped in as the music stopped and then started again. Roxas had the sense to summon his Keyblade outside since it was pretty loud, and Steve picked up his shield that was leaning against a wall as they creeped around the apartment, following the music.

They peeked around a corner to the darkened living room to see Nick Fury laying back in an armchair in a corner, next to a playing record player that was playing the 1940s music. Fury looked at the two of them, and they sighed out in relief, before Steve checked one of his pockets.

"I don't remember giving you a key," Steve informed the director.

Fury grunted as he sat up, getting the twos attentions.

"You really think I'd need one?" Fury asked. "My wife kicked me out."

"You have a wife?" Roxas asked, surprised.

"I didn't know you were married," Steve informed Nick, nonchalantly.

"A lot of things you don't know about me," Fury admitted.

"I know, Nick," Steve informed him, walking into the room and reaching for the light switch while Roxas dismissed his Keyblade. "That's the problem."

Steve turned on the light, and the two could see the bruises on the man. As surprise grew on their faces, Fury gestured to them with his right hand, which held a Smartphone. He then reached up and turned off the light. Roxas and Steve both then watched as the man typed a few keys into his phone before showing it to them.

"Ears everywhere," the words typed on the phone read.

"I'm sorry to have to do this..." Fury started to tell them in an act, while Roxas and Steve looked around warily. "But I had no place else to crash."

Fury typed some more onto his phone, showing the words, "SHIELD compromised."

Roxas and Steve read the words with their eyebrows furrowed as they looked up at Nick again.

"Who else knows about your wife?" Steve asked.

Fury groaned in pain as he stood up, showing his phone again which said, "You two, V, and me."

"Just..." the man started to say. "My friends."

"Is that what we are?" Steve asked.

"'Cause I've made friends faster and nicer than this," Roxas admitted.

"That's up to you guys," Fury informed them.

Gunfire then erupted through the wall, three shots firing through the plaster and hitting Fury in the torso, causing him to cry out in pain. He fell to the ground, and Roxas and Steve started dragging him away from the wall. Steve snuck a quick peek out the window in the next room to try to see the building across the street. He thought he saw someone as they dragged Fury into the kitchen.

They started to leave, Roxas summoning his Keyblade, before Fury grabbed Steve's free hand for a second. Steve stopped and looked down as the man released his hand, showing that he was offering the flash drive Natasha had provided him. Understanding the message, Steve took the flash drive and stared at it for a second.

"Don't..." Fury weakly started to say. "Trust anyone... but V."

Steve's door then burst open, and the two peeked around a corner to observe the hallway.

"Captain Rogers?" Steve's neighbor called out, walking into their eyesights with a handgun raised in preparation. Steve and Vanitas were very surprised to see her. "Captain, Roxas, I'm Agent 13 of SHIELD Special Service."

"Kate?" Steve asked.

"I've been assigned to protect you," Kate explained, walking past them into the kitchen, to see Fury.

"On whose order?" Steve asked.

"His," Kate answered, nodding her head at Fury, who had gone silent.

Kate kneeled down next to him and checked for his pulse. The two watched as she pulled a handheld communicator out of her pocket.

"Foxtrot is down, he's unresponsive," she spoke into the device. "I need EMTs."

"Do we have a 20 on the shooter?" a male voice asked from the communicator.

Steve and Roxas looked out the window again to see a figure in black with silver covering on his arm turn from the building and start to run down the top of the other building.

"Tell him we're in pursuit," Steve told her.

"Let's roll," Roxas added.

Steve jumped through the window of his building and crashed through the window on the building across from him. Luckily, after his mission in Neverland, Roxas had learned Glide, so he used it to follow his friend. The two ran along the floor they had landed on, looking up through rafters in the ceiling to see the assailant they were chasing on the roof above them.

Steve then stayed in front of Roxas as he led the way. First, he crashed through a pair of doors with his shield, knocking them to the ground. Roxas started to feel like the man was showing off as he did aerobics jumping on a wall and a desk. He then led Roxas through hallways, crashing through glass doors and regular doors with his shield. After they reached a certain point, Steve used his shield to end his slight charge by slamming into a wall before continuing it by smashing through another pair of doors.

"Definitely showing off," Roxas muttered as they reached a hallway with a window at the end.

Through the window, they saw the assailant jump from the roof above them to the roof of the building next to them, which wasn't as tall. Steve crashed through the window onto the roof, followed by Roxas who was gliding.

They landed on the roof and Steve threw his shield at the assailant. To help things, Roxas summoned his Keyblade and threw that at the assailant as well. To both of their surprises, the assailant stopped and turned to then to catch the shield with his left arm, which they could now see was metal. They watched in even more surprise as the man knocked Roxas' Keyblade out of the air before throwing the shield right at Steve.

Vanitas appeared in a flash of light in front of the two while Steve caught his shield, a little uneasily.

"Whoa!" Vanitas called out, before he noticed his two friends in front of him. "Guys, we've got a pro-"

He was cut off by the familiar sound of Heartless teleporting behind him. The three looked past him to see Deserters had appeared on the roof and were running around wildly.

"Oh, these guys?" Roxas asked in annoyance, re-summoning his Keyblade.

"Damn it," Vanitas muttered in equal annoyance as he checked the chamber of his other Desert Eagle.

The three of them quickly went to work. Steve threw his shield at one Deserter, which smacked it onto the ground before flying to attack another, before it flew back into Steve's hand. Roxas used a combo attack to take out one Deserter, while Vanitas lobed a fireball at another one, blowing it up. Once a Deserter got close enough to Steve, he smacked it in the face with his shield, knocking it to the ground before he stomped on it, destroying it.

"Gather!" Roxas called out as he sent up Magnera, picking up three Deserters.

He followed it up with Thundara, which destroyed the Heartless. Vanitas then jumped up in a spinning motion, kicking a Deserter in the head and knocking it to the ground. Before it could get up, Vanitas fired one of the remaining rounds in his Desert Eagle into its head, destroying it. Vanitas sighed out as he shot another Deserter that passed by him, without even looking at it. Steve then knocked the last Deserter towards Roxas, who destroyed it by slashing through it with his Keyblade.

The Heartless taken care of, the three ran to the edge of the building. Even though they knew it was fruitless, they stood on the ledge and looked around in hope that they could see the man. As to be expected, there was no sight of him anywhere, much to their dismay.

The three of them then followed the ambulance to the hospital, and stood outside the room where Nick was in surgery. Before they reached the room, Vanitas felt a desire to change back into his battle outfit of the grey V neck, blue shield pants and sling across his back, so he did that before they reached the room and looked through the glass window at the surgery. After watching for a little while, they were eventually joined by Natasha.

"Is he gonna make it?" Natasha asked in worry as she watched the procedure with them.

"I don't know," Steve admitted.

As they watched, Vanitas could feel a form of despair in his his chest at the sight of Fury unconscious and having the work done on him. Even though he still didn't remember the man, apparently his subconscious knew that they were friends. He didn't like seeing the man in pain, and was hoping to whatever was out there that he'd be all right.

"Tell me about the shooter," Natasha told the three.

"He's fast," Steve informed her. "Strong."

"Caught his shield head on," Roxas added. "Swatted my Keyblade out of the air."

"And he had a metal arm," Steve added.

"The Heartless appeared around the same time he did," Vanitas informed them, somberly. "They haven't been on this world in two years, and can only be here if someone is directing them. I think we found your dark presence, Roxas."

Roxas nodded slightly as Maria Hill walked up on Natasha's opposite side and watch the surgery with them.

"Ballistics?" Natasha asked, softly.

"Three slugs, no rifling," Maria informed them, also softly. "Completely untraceable."

"Soviet-made," Natasha assessed, still softly.

"Fuck," Vanitas muttered, also softly.

Maria looked at her and nodded in agreement as they watched the surgery progress. Jasper Sitwell and Steve's associate from STRIKE, Brock Rumlow had appeared behind them and watched the procedure with them. Their attentions were drawn to the equipment in the room beeping in a manner that meant things were going wrong.

"No..." Vanitas muttered desperately as they watched. "No, he can't..."

"Don't do this to me, Nick," Natasha whispered as they watched the doctors at work.

They watched as the EKG went flat, and a doctor tried the defibrillator. The small group watched somberly as the doctors couldn't get a pulse back before trying for a higher dose.

"No," Vanitas muttered in desperation. "No!"

They watched as the doctors continued checking if there was a pulse or not. When the lead doctor closed his eyes and kept them closed, that's when they got the idea. Maria started to tear up, Natasha stared blankly at the window while trying to keep back her own tears, and Vanitas punched the nearest wall in distraught.

Steve and Roxas stepped away from the window first, soon followed by Maria. Natasha and Vanitas stayed in place, both of them upset at what was happening.

Once they were alone, Steve and Roxas took out the flash drive and looked at it, before making eye contact to try to see what the other was thinking.

Not long after, Steve and Roxas were leaning against a wall in a hallway leading into a room where Natasha and Vanitas were standing in the doorway, looking over the body of Nick Fury laying on the stretcher in front of them. Natasha shed a couple of more tears at the loss of the man, and Vanitas wished that he could shed tears as well, and could remember how they were friends.

In the hallway, Maria walked up to stand on Steve's other side, also looking into the room at Nick's body.

"I need to take him," Maria informed them.

Steve looked at her and walked over to Natasha and Vanitas.

"Natasha. V," he softly told the two, and they got the message.

Natasha placed a hand on Nick's head before quickly leaving the room. Vanitas nodded at his fallen ally before following Steve and Roxas after the redheaded woman.

"Natasha," Steve called out, and she turned to face them.

"Why was Fury in your apartment?" Natasha asked Steve.

Steve did his best to have a helpless expression on his face and raised his arms in a shrugging manner.

"I don't know," he sighed out.

"He wouldn't say," Roxas added, adding his own level of unknowing helplessness.

"Cap," Rumlow called out, getting his attention. "They want you back at SHIELD. You, Roxas, and Vanitas."

"Yeah, give us a second," Steve told him.

"They want you now," Rumlow insisted.

"Persistent bunch, huh?" Vanitas joked, looking at his friends.

"Okay," Steve told him.

Rumlow stared at them for a second and turned to walk away. The three looked at Natasha again, who was staring at Steve and Roxas with a smug expression.

"You're terrible liars," she informed the two.

"I thought I taught you better," Vanitas commented, looking at Roxas.

Natasha turned from the trio and walked down the hallway. Steve sighed out and put his hands on his hips as he looked around. Him, Roxas, and Vanitas saw the group of STRIKE teammates waiting for them at the end of the hallway. Steve and Roxas quickly checked the vending machine real quick, where they could faintly see the flash drive hidden behind the Hubba Bubba gum. They nodded to Vanitas, who nodded back before the three of them walked down the hallway to join STRIKE in leaving the building, back to SHIELD headquarters.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A Desert Eagle handgun is powerful, but it only holds 7 bullets. So, naturally, it runs out quicker
> 
> I didn't really know what else to say here


	4. Compromised

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roxas, Steve, and Vanitas escape from SHIELD

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember, one of Vanitas' abilities was sensing the levels of light and darkness in people, as warnings. Like his other abilities, that one could pop off at random.

Once the trio arrived back at SHIELD HQ, Steve took a moment to change back into his Captain America suit and strap his shield onto his back. Following Rumlow's instructions, he lead Roxas and Vanitas up to the top level, Secretary Alexander Pierce's office. Once they reached the floor, they walked through the hallways and reached the door, where they saw Pierce finishing a conversation with Kate, Agent 13.

The three walked up to the door as they finished their conversation and she turned towards them to leave.

"Captain Rogers," Kate blankly greeted. "Roxas, Vanitas."

"Neighbor," Steve blankly greeted back.

"How you doing?" Vanitas asked as they walked past the girl.

"Oh," Pierce greeted the trio. "Captain. Keyblade Wielders. I'm Alexander Pierce."

He offered his hand, which Steve shook.

"Sir, it's an honor," Steve greeted.

"The honor's mine, Captain," Pierce informed him as he shook Roxas and Vanitas' hands. "My father served in the 101st. Come in."

"Nice to see SHIELD's being watched over by more capable hands nowadays," Vanitas commented as they walked into the office.

Pierce handed an old picture of much younger versions of himself and Fury as he went over to a desk.

"That photo was taken five years after Nick and I met, when I was in state department in Bogota," Pierce explained as he swung his suit jacket over the back of his desk chair before he started organizing some papers in his hands. "E.L.N. rebels took the embassy, and security got me out, but the rebels took hostages. Nick was deputy chief of SHIELD stationed there, and he comes to me with a plan."

Steve, Roxas, and Vanitas looked up from the picture and to Pierce as he started walking down the length of the conference table.

"He wants to storm the building through the sewers," he continued as he started walking up to the three. "I said, 'No, we'll negotiate.' Turned out, the E.L.N. didn't negotiate, so they put out a kill order. They storm the basement. And what do they find?"

He had reached them and was now standing in front of one of four chairs facing a small table, the other three in front of chairs of their own.

"They find it empty," Pierce continued as he placed his papers on the table as he started to sit in his chair. The other three followed his example and started to sit in their respective chairs. "Nick had ignored my direct order, and carried out an unauthorized military operation on foreign soil, and saved the lives of a dozen political officers, including my daughter."

"He was one hell of a ballsy motherfucker," Vanitas commented.

"And it sounds like it was a really good trait about him," Roxas added.

"So you gave him a promotion," Steve assessed.

"I've never had any cause to regret it," Pierce admitted. Steve nodded slightly and looked at the table. "Captain, why was Nick at your apartment last night?"

Steve looked at him for a second before looking back down and shaking his head slightly.

"I don't know," he told the man.

"He wouldn't say why," Roxas repeated what he told Natasha not long ago.

"Did you know it was bugged?" Pierce asked.

"We did, because Nick told us," Steve informed him.

"Did he tell you that he was the one who bugged it?" Pierce asked.

Steve went silent at that, which gave Pierce the answer he wanted.

"Man, be glad you never brought a girl back to that place," Vanitas commented. "Or... you, know, a guy."

"Again, not gay," Steve told Vanitas.

"I want you to see something," Pierce informed the trio.

He pressed a button on a nearby console, and a video came up on part of the large screen on the wall next to them. The three were very surprised to see the fugitive that had gotten away the other night tied to a chair and being interrogated.

"Is that live?" Steve asked, intrigued.

"Yeah, they picked him up last night in a not-so-safe house Algiers," Pierce informed the captain.

"Are you saying he's a suspect?" Steve asked.

"Assassination isn't Batroc's line," Pierce told them. "No, no. It's more complicated than that. Batroc was hired anonymously to attack the Lumerian Star. And he was contacted by email and paid by wire transfer... and then the money was run through 17 fictitious accounts."

"That's... a lot of accounts," Roxas commented, his eyes slightly widened as he once again didn't understand most of what they were talking about.

"The last one going to a holding company that was registered to a Jacob Veech," Pierce continued.

He picked up some of the papers he had and held them out to the captain.

"Are we supposed to know who that is?" Steve asked as he took the papers.

"Not likely, Veech died six years ago," Pierce admitted as Steve flipped open the pamphlet-like set of papers. "His last address was 1435 Elmhurst Drive. When I first met Nick, his mother lived at 1437."

 _That_ got the attention of the three enhanced soldiers.

"Are you saying Fury hired the pirates?" Steve asked.

"The director of SHIELD hired some dickheads to attack a SHIELD ship?" Vanitas elaborated. "Doesn't make a lick of any damn sense."

"Exactly," Steve agreed. "So why?"

"The prevailing theory was that the hijacking was a cover for the acquisition and sale of classified intelligence," Pierce informed them.

Roxas looked confused.

"You think he stole and sold secret information from his own corporation to random people out there?" Vanitas defined for his friend.

"That's out best theory," Pierce admitted. "The sale went sour and that led to Nick's death."

Steve was silent as he looked over the information in the packet still in his hands.

"If you really knew Nick Fury, you'd know that's not true," Steve informed him.

"I barely remember who he is, and even I know that's not true," Vanitas added.

Pierce nodded his head slightly before asking, "Why do you think we're talking?"

He stood up, and the trio followed his example.

"See, I took a seat on the council not because I wanted to..." Pierce started explaining as he walked towards the window across from them. "...But because Nick asked me to, because we were both realists." He stopped in front of the window and stared out at the city. "We knew that, despite all the diplomacy and the handshaking and the rhetoric, that to build a really better world... sometimes means having to tear the old one down."

"That's kind of dark," Roxas muttered to Vanitas.

"And that makes enemies," Pierce informed them as he turned from the window to look at them again. He started to walk towards them again as he continued. "Those people that call you dirty because you got the guts to stick your hands in the mud and try to build something better." He stopped. "And the idea that those people could be happy today... makes me really, really angry."

Roxas raised an eyebrow at that. Vanitas also felt a weird feeling coming from the man in front of them. Sort of like there was something within him that he was keeping hidden for the sake of appearances. And something told Vanitas it wasn't that he was secretly gay. It was more like... there was some secret evil in the man that he could sense. Given the insanity of his life so far, Vanitas wouldn't put it past him that he could do that.

"Captain, you and Roxas were the last ones to see Nick alive," Pierce reminded them. "I don't think that's an accident. And I don't think you do, either."

Steve and Roxas did their keep up their acts, hoping that it wasn't visible that they were lying in their eyes.

"So, I'm gonna ask again," Pierce told them. "Why was he there?"

"...He told us not to trust anyone," Steve finally answered.

"He really stressed the importance of that," Roxas added.

"I wonder if that included him," Pierce said.

"I'm sorry," Steve told him. "Those were his last words."

"Not much more we can tell you," Roxas told him.

"And you, Vanitas?" Pierce asked.

"I didn't show up 'till after what happened," Vanitas told him. "I'm another dead end. Sorry."

"Excuse us," Steve told him.

Steve grabbed his shield and attached it onto his back again as the trio turned and started towards the exit of the room.

"Captain, Keyblade Wielders," Pierce called out. The three stopped and turned to see the man leaning back slightly against his desk. "Somebody murdered my friend and I'm gonna find out why. Anyone gets in my way, they're gonna regret it. _Anyone._ "

"...Understood," Steve informed him.

"Good to know," Vanitas added.

The three enhanced soldiers walked out of the room walked down the hall to the elevator. After pressing the button, the three waited for the elevator patiently.

"Anyone else get a little creeped out for by that guy?" Roxas muttered to his allies.

"Thank you," Vanitas breathed out in relief, gesturing to his friend. "I'm not the only one."

The elevator doors opened, and the three walked across it to the glass wall that let them look out at the city.

"Operations Control," Steve instructed the elevator computer AI.

" _Confirmed_ ," the computer AI announced.

However, right before the doors could close, Brock Rumlow stopped them and walked in with a few of his teammates.

"Keep all STRIKE personnel on site," he instructed as they piled into the elevator. "Forensics. Cap."

"Rumlow," Steve greeted as the three enhanced soldiers turned at the man's greeting.

"Nice to meet you, Brock," Vanitas commented as the trio stopped facing the window and just stared up.

The elevator was in slight silence for a bit as it travelled down the building.

"Evidence response found some fibers on the roof they want us to see," Rumlow informed Steve. "You want me to get the tac team ready?"

"No, let's wait and see what it is first," Steve instructed.

"Yeah, it might have been something leftover from the Heartless," Vanitas added, intentionally bullshitting the man.

"Right," Rumlow assessed, looking out the other window with his teammates.

As the ride down the elevator continued, Steve and Vanitas noticed one of the STRIKE members in there with them was gripping a weapon on his leg holster a little too tightly. Rumlow faced the elevator doors as they beeped and the travel down halted again. Four men in suits carrying brief cases walked in.

"Administrations level," one instructed the computer AI.

" _Confirmed_ ," the computer AI announced.

The many people in the elevator started repositioning themselves, and even the not-too-understanding Roxas started to slowly understand something as him, Vanitas, and Steve ended up in the center of the elevator, surrounded by people.

"I'm sorry about what happened with Fury," Rumlow informed Steve and Vanitas. "It's messed up, what happened to him."

"Thank you," Steve told him.

"I appreciate it," Vanitas informed the man, in just as the same bland tone Steve told him.

Looking around again, Steve saw that one of the men behind him was sweating. Since it was rather cool in the elevator, he could tell it was more for nervousness. The elevator stopped one more time, and three more big, muscled men walked in.

"Records," one instructed the computer AI as they stood in front of the doors.

" _Confirmed_ ," the computer AI announced.

The elevator doors closed, and Steve, Roxas, and Vanitas immediately took notice of how they were now surrounded by soldiers.

"Before we get started..." Steve started to say. "...Does anybody want to get out?"

"Maybe quick bathroom break to change out of their good pants?" Vanitas added.

The man who was clutching his holstered device pulled it out, which extended into a stun rod. He tried jabbing it at Steve, who directed it away from himself. Vanitas caught the guy's arm, and dragged him across the elevator, slamming him in a wall. Roxas ducked under an overhead swing while half the men in the elevator grabbed at Steve and started forcing him against the wall. Once man hit the emergency stop button on the elevator as another pulled the shield off of Steve's back.

Roxas ducked under another overhead strike and punched the man in the face, which hurt his own hand a bit. Vanitas continued fighting the man who had the electric rod for a few seconds, keeping that one off of Steve. Steve, himself, was still being restrained against the wall by multiple men. Two of the ones who had briefcases had detached the handles, revealing them to be magnetic cuffs. They attached a cuff to Steve's right wrist and started to raise his hand up to metal parts of the elevator wall.

Roxas kicked the man in front of him in the groin, forcing him to clutch it in pain.

"That's my boy!" Vanitas exclaimed as he rammed the head of the soldier he was fighting into the wall, hard.

Steve then kicked the shin of the man who was forcing his right hand up to the wall, causing him to exclaim in pain. Roxas then grabbed him by the back of his shirt and pulled him away from Steve as he pushed aside another one of the men on his right. Vanitas kicked another one of the soldiers in the stomach, causing it to exclaim in pain before Steve knocked the other man in a suit in the face, causing the other magnetic cuff to attach to a wall on its own.

Steve then managed to get all the men holding him against the wall off of him, and knocked them all around the elevator. Roxas was still trying to knock out the guy he had grabbed with kicks, while Vanitas was ramming another man's head into one of the glass windows. Rumlow then kicked Steve's right hand, causing it to go flying up and attach itself to the metal on the wall. Vanitas dropped his man and grabbed at Rumlow right before he could attack Steve with another electric rod. The man then jabbed the rod into Vanitas instead, but it barely had an impact, so Vanitas punched him in the face and threw him into the elevator doors.

Three more men tried surrounding Steve, but he managed to knock them aside, even sending one into the security camera. Roxas pulled one of the others away from his friend and rammed the man's head hard into the metal, knocking him out.

Steve jumped up onto the wall and pulled hard on the electric cuff around his wrist until it came off. He fell to the ground in a backflip, moving his feet in a manner that they kicked another one of the men in the face. He got on his feet and regarded his friends before seeing Rumlow with two electric rods in his hands.

"Whoa, big guy," the man exclaimed in a manner like he was talking to an angry gorilla. "I just want you to know, Cap, this isn't personal!"

The man started swinging his electric rods at Steve, which he dodged before catching one. Rumlow used the other to electrocute Steve in the stomach, but then Vanitas put him in a headlock. Roxas kicked the man in his groin as well, causing him to breathe out in pain. Vanitas released the man and let the captain grab him by the straps on his back. Steve threw him up in the air, causing him to crash in the ceiling before falling to the ground, unconscious.

"It kind of feels personal," Steve informed him.

"I think he was compensating for something," Vanitas joked.

Steve stomped on his shield, causing it to fly up into his waiting hand. He used the edge to break off the cuff on his wrist. The three rushed forwards and Roxas pressed the button to open the doors. Unfortunately, about a dozen soldiers aiming their rifles into the elevator were waiting on the other side of the door.

"Drop the shield and put your hands into the air!" one yelled at them.

Steve quickly went to the broken glass on their left and broke the cables outside, causing the elevator to start sliding down the side of the building, fast. The three held on as the elevator fell much more quickly before the gears stopped it halfway between floors. Steve and Vanitas quickly went to work and started prying open the doors above them with their bare hards. They looked through the open doors to see another dozen soldiers running down the hall towards them.

"Nope," Vanitas announced as they slid the doors shut.

Thinking quickly, the trio looked out the window on the right of the doors to see a glass roof not too far below them. Bracing themselves, Steve went first, crashing through the window with his shield and falling with his shield pointed at the glass roof to break through it as well. Vanitas and Roxas leaped out of the broken window and ceiling after him and landed on the ground just as roughly as he did, surprising many of the people in the large room.

The three braced themselves up and started running down a corridor, towards the garage. Quickly donning his mask, Steve got on one motorcycle, and Vanitas hopped onto another with Roxas holding onto him on the back. The two of them drove the bikes out of the exit just as a metal barricade came up to try to block them.

The two motorcycles drove down the road, and the people on top quickly noticed spikes coming out of the ground nearby what looked like a toll booth, in an attempt to stop the two. A Quinjet even flew out of somewhere and faced the two in a threatening manner.

"Stand down, Captain Rogers, Vanitas, and Roxas," a voice announced from a speaker on the ship. "Stand down." A rail gun even retracted out of the bottom of the ship to emphasize the point. "Repeat, stand down."

Instead, they drove their bikes around the road to dodge the blasts from the rail gun. Steve then pulled his shield off of his back and threw it at one of the side engines.

"This is gonna be awesome, Roxas," Vanitas promised his friend.

The people riding the bikes stood up a bit before igniting the brakes, sending them flying up onto the Quinjet. Steve pulled his shield out of the deactivated propeller, then they held on as the ship flailed around wildly in response to one of the propellers breaking. Vanitas laughed in defiance as Steve threw his shield to knock onto the back engines before they ran down the length of the ship.

The three jumped off of the ship and landed behind the road barricade as the ship crashed hard into the ground far behind them.

"You're right," Roxas told Vanitas, breathless. "That _was_ awesome."

"Told you," Vanitas informed him. "Now let's go. *mutters* Now I see why it was a good idea to change out of my jacket..."

The three ran down the road as quickly as they could, determined to put as much distance between the corporation and them as possible.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As much as I love Roxas's character, I have to admit he was kind of clueless about... pretty much everything for most of his own game, which I guess is part of the character development, since he gets smarter later on?  
> Also, show of hands, who else loves that scene in the elevator?


	5. The Winter Soldier

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The trio unites with Natasha, who gives them a few vital keys of information before they try to discover what's on the flash drive Fury gave them

As they made their way back to the hospital to get the flash drive, Vanitas gripped his head at a slight vision. Jasper Sitwell and Pierce was informing the science division (?) of SHIELD to organize a manhunt for the three of them, so thorough they wanted to know even if someone Tweeted about the trio. When Kate, Agent 13 asked why, Pierce said that they had information relating to Fury's death that they wouldn't share, making the three of them fugitives of SHIELD.

The vision luckily ended as they changed their clothes before heading to the hospital. Steve changed into more civilian clothes, along with a hoodie to try to disguise his face with. Vanitas provided Roxas with some clothes from his sling. He was soon decked out in black and white Nike sneakers, blue jeans, a blue and white DC shirt, an open blue and white short sleeved plaid shirt, and a black hoodie. Vanitas was dressed back in his not leather SKINO jacket with his sling hidden in the larger on the inside pockets, a buttoned up red and grey shirt, and blue jeans with his usual sneakers. He even stole concealer from a make up store to hide his scar. There was just one thing about their disguises Roxas wasn't a fan of.

"Why the hell do we have to wear these dumb wigs?" Roxas asked as they walked down the hospital hallway.

Vanitas had also stolen two wigs from the store, both of shaggy black hair, one looking like what you'd expect from Harry Potter, and one with the hair waved to the left side, similar to his older brother Jack's hair.

"You know how easily recognizable our hair is on this world?" Vanitas asked Roxas. "Sure, we'd probably fit in in Japan, but here in America, we're the only two guys with hair like that. We gotta hide it from people."

"I hate it when you make a good point," Roxas sighed out.

"Join the club, we meet on Thursdays," Vanitas joked as they reached the hallway with the vending machine where they left the flash drive.

The three of them walked up to the machine, but their eyes widened when they saw that all the Hubba Bubba gum was gone, and the flash drive was nowhere to be seen. They stared in despair for a few seconds before the sound of a bubble popping behind them garnered their attentions. They turned to see Natasha staring at them, chewing gum, which immediately gave them the idea of what had happened.

Not wasting any time, Steve grabbed Natasha and the three of them rushed into the nearest room. Roxas shut the door behind them while Steve slammed Natasha into the nearest wall. Steve removed his hood and the Keyblade wielders removed their wigs as they faced the woman.

"Where is it?" Steve asked her.

"Safe," Natasha told them. "You know, if you're gonna wear make up, V, I think some eyeshadow would really improve your overall look."

"Shut up," Vanitas warned her, pulling out a Glock in warning.

"Do better than that," Steve warned her.

"Where did you get it?" Natasha asked.

"Why would we tell you?" Roxas asked, doing his best to look intimidating with a frown.

"Fury gave it to you," Natasha assessed. "Why?"

"What's on it?" Steve asked her instead.

"I don't know," Natasha admitted.

"You downloaded all that information off of the computer on that ship but you don't know what it is?" Vanitas asked, accusingly.

"Exactly," Steve agreed with the ravenette. "Stop lying."

"I only act like I know everything, boys," Natasha informed them.

Steve and Roxas spared a quick look at the door to make sure no one was coming before looking at Natasha again.

"I bet you knew Fury hired the pirates, didn't you?" Steve asked her.

Natasha actually looked a little surprised before very quickly shaking it off.

"Well, it makes sense," she admitted. "The ship was dirty, Fury needed a way in, so do you."

Steve gripped her arms tightly in anger.

"I'm not gonna ask you again," he announced.

"And if he can't do it, I will," Vanitas announced, pulling back the chamber of his Glock in preparation.

After a few seconds of silence, Natasha got an idea.

"I know who killed Fury," she informed them.

Steve slowly let go of her, and Vanitas raised his eyebrow. Even Roxas was intrigued in finding out who this was.

"Most of the intelligence community doesn't believe he exists," Natasha started explaining. "The ones that do call him the Winter Soldier. He's credited with over two dozen assassinations in the last 50 years."

"So he's a ghost story," Steve commented.

Vanitas closed his eyes as he had a smaller vision. His friend Ventus was standing in a small field with powered down Keyblades sticking up in the ground all around him, with four others there. One was a silver haired guy with a yellow pouch, one was a black haired girl in black and white, one was a black haired guy wearing a hat and a leather jacket over a v neck, and the last looked like a younger version of the gay man, Marluxia. This setting looked somehow ancient, and then he saw Ventus as he was when he knew him, with the straps across his chest and armor on his shoulder and everything. Somehow, he knew that there was a very big, inhumanly possible time difference between these two points in his friend's life.

"Maybe not," he announced. "Some Keyblade wielders of old times... I think they perfected the skill of extended lifetimes. Eternal youth."

"That sounds awesome," Natasha admitted. "But that's not what this is."

"Well, I tried," Vanitas said, nonchalantly, shrugging his shoulders.

"Five years ago, I was escorting a nuclear engineer out of Iran," Natasha explained to Steve. "Somebody shot out my tires near Odessa. We lost control, went straight over a cliff. I pulled us out. But the Winter Soldier was there. I was covering my engineer, so he shot him straight through me."

She lifted up her shirt a bit to show them a healed scar on her stomach, no doubt from where the bullet went through her.

"Soviet slug," Natasha informed them as they looked from the scar back to her face. "No rifling." She smirked. "Bye-bye, bikinis."

"...Yeah, I bet you'd look terrible in them now," Steve remarked.

Roxas thought for a second.

"You were frozen, right?" he asked, gesturing to Steve, who nodded his head. "Well, maybe somebody did the same thing to this guy, but intentionally. Keep him on ice until they need him for a mission, then thaw him out and give him a target?"

Steve, Natasha, and Vanitas took in the information, nodding their heads as his suggestion made sense. Vanitas looked at his friend, impressed.

"Look at you with the big brain," he said, patting Roxas on the shoulder with his hand holding the gun, Roxas jumping back as the dangerous end was pointed right at his head. "Sorry."

"Going after him is a dead end," Natasha informed Steve. "I know, I've tried." She pulled out the flash drive and held it up so they could see it. "Like you said, he's a ghost story."

Steve took the offered flash drive as the boys slipped their wigs back on.

"Well, let's find out what the ghost wants," Steve announced.

They made their way to a mall in the city, Natasha wearing a hoodie to mask her head, while Steve had on a blue cap and glasses. Vanitas helped their ploy by supplying Roxas a fedora and himself sunglasses. He might've looked like a jackass by wearing them indoors, but that's what he was going for. Plus, he wanted to try to make the make up on his face less obvious.

"First rule of going on the run is don't run, walk," Natasha informed them as they walked through the mall, Steve looking around just in case.

"If I run in these shows, they're gonna fall off," Steve told her.

"Sorry, all I had left were the larges," Vanitas told his friend. "I didn't really put too much thought in the wardrobe in the sling."

"Yet you had a shelf full of fedoras," Roxas commented.

"Fedoras are awesome," Vanitas informed him. "Just ask Patrick Stump."

They went up to a second floor technology shop where they went into one of the testing computers provided to people. Natasha clacked the right keys to get them to where they needed.

"The drive has a Level Six homing program, so as soon as we boot up SHIELD will know exactly where we are," Natasha explained, perfectly answering Roxas's unanswered question while Steve served as a look out in case someone noticed them.

"How much time will we have?" Steve asked.

"About nine minutes from..." Natasha started right before plugging the flash drive in the computer, which turned on a blue light on the device. "...now."

Steve, Roxas, and Vanitas looked out in case of danger while Natasha went through the information on the flash drive.

"Fury was right about that ship," Natasha informed them. "Somebody's trying to hide something."

Steve and Roxas looked down at the computer as the Lumerian Star's satellite intel appeared in a tab.

"This drive is protected by some sort of AI," Natasha announced. "It keeps rewriting itself to counter my commands."

"This machine's self aware," Vanitas tried joking to ease the tension. "It just needs a few allies so it can serve as Skynet and lead its own robot uprising."

It didn't work.

"Can you override it?" Steve asked Natasha, brushing off Vanitas' words.

"The person who developed this is slightly smarter than me," Natasha admitted. "Slightly."

She clacked the keys very quickly for a few seconds.

"I'm gonna try running a tracer," Natasha announced. "This is a program that SHIELD developed to track hostile malware, so... if we can't read the file, maybe we can find out where it came from."

The information suddenly became a picture of the East Coast as it tried to zero in on the location.

"Can I help you guys with anything?" a long haired, bearded employee for the store asked in a helpful voice, walking up to them.

"Oh, no," Natasha said with a nice voice, putting her hands on Steve's shoulders. "My fiance was just helping me with some honeymoon destinations. Don't mind his cousins, they're grounded and had to come with us as a part of punishment."

"Right," Steve smiled, slight unease in his voice while Natasha went back to the computer. "We're getting married."

"And we had no choice to come along," Vanitas admitted as he and Roxas smiled.

"Congratulations," the store attendant told Steve. "Where are you guys thinking about going?"

They all looked at the computer as it gave them the destination.

"New Jersey," Steve read out.

"Oh," the man said.

"Oh, you guys really are losers," Vanitas said in a whiney teen voice. "That place sucks."

"Dude, be nice," Roxas reprimanded Vanitas as part of the act.

Steve looked from the computer to the store attendant who was with them, and the man scrunched his eyes and opened his mouth in recognition. Steve freaked out for a second as the man started to point at his face.

"I have the exact same glasses," the man said, calming Steve down.

"Wow, you two are practically twins," Natasha said from her position at the computer.

"Yeah. I wish," the man laughed, holding up his hands in front of Steve as if he was observing him in a museum. "Specimen."

Steve nodded his head slightly.

"If you guys need anything, I've been Aaron," the man said, holding up the badge that dangled around his neck.

"Thank you," Steve told him.

"Nice meeting you, Aaron," Roxas told the man before he walked away.

"I liked him," Vanitas smiled as they continued the work.

"You said nine minutes," Steve told Natasha after a second. "Come on."

"Relax," she told him. More information processed for a second. "Got it."

The exact place they were looking for came in a zooming in function, and Steve leaned forwards as he read it in.

"You know it?" Natasha asked.

"I used to," he admitted. "Let's go."

Steve pulled out the flash drive and they left the store, trying to walk quickly but not draw attention to themselves.

"Standard tac team," Steve informed them. "Two behind, two across, and two coming straight at us."

The boys were surprised as they saw exactly that happening. Two people that they guessed were from STRIKE were across from them in the hallway of people, slowly getting closer.

"If they make us, I'll engage with V, you and Roxas hit the south escalator to the metro," Steve informed Natasha.

"Shut up and put your arm around me," Natasha informed Steve. "Laugh at something I said. Boys, just walk like you don't know them. You have good enough disguises."

"What?" Steve asked as the STRIKE members got closer.

"Do it," Natasha demanded.

Steve put his arm around her shoulders, and the two leaned their heads near each others'. He laughed as the four of them passed the two STRIKE members easily. Steve spared a quick look back as they made their way to the escalators.

"We're gonna make it," Roxas whispered.

"Shh," Vanitas shushed him. "Haven't you learned anything from those horror movies I told you about? It's when you say something like that that everything goes to shit."

They stood on the escalator as it started to take them down to the ground floor. Looking around, Natasha saw Brock Rumlow riding on the escalator next to them that was riding up. Thinking quick, she turned and faced Steve.

"Kiss me," she told him.

"What?" Steve asked, genuinely surprised.

"Public displays of affection make people very uncomfortable," Natasha told him.

"Yes, they do," Steve agreed, uncomfortable himself.

"I'll do it," Vanitas offered quickly.

Natasha waved him up and quickly stood on her toes so she could kiss Steve right on the lips. Roxas' eyes widened in surprise. He remembered Vanitas' words about people kissing, but he didn't know it looked like that. This is what couples did to assure their feelings to each other?

He brushed it off as he and Vanitas looked to the side to make sure they didn't make facial contact with the guy they had beat the crap out of just hours before. Rumlow was looking aside after seeing the couple kissing, proving Natasha's point. He spared one more jealous look at the couple before looking forwards once again as the escalator took him farther up.

The two separated and Natasha started walking down the open space in the escalator.

"You still uncomfortable?" she asked.

"Not exactly the word I would use," Steve admitted as he followed her.

"Watch the tent, dude," Vanitas joked as he and Roxas followed him.

"What?" Roxas asked.

"I'll tell you when you're older," Vanitas told him.

They left the mall, preparing themselves for whatever came next.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, if you haven't noticed, I've been a bit smarter with my chapter updating schedule recently. Gotta do something while trapped in my house, right? 🤷
> 
> Also, not THAT kind of DC. I have a blue and white DC shirt that has nothing to do with that DC. I think it's just a promotion for the capital thing.


	6. HYDRA

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group learns the truth about SHIELD, while Pierce has a surprise visit from some allies

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now there are a few unique bits in this part of the story again, so expect that along with Vanitas breaking the fourth wall. Again

The four of them "commandeered" a big pickup truck for their drive to Jersey, Steve driving with Natasha in the passenger seat, and Roxas and Vanitas in the back seat. Since the roads on the way there were kind of discreet, Steve felt safe to take of the glasses and hat he used, and Roxas and Vanitas followed his example while also removing their wigs. Vanitas passed the time by pulling out his phone and showing Roxas downloaded episodes of Doctor Who.

"These two," Vanitas informed him, pointing at the Eleventh Doctor and Clara Oswald on the screen. "They deserve to be happy because they're in love."

Roxas looked at his friend with his eyebrows furrowed due to the intensity in his voice.

"Is there a reason why you're so obsessed with that?" he asked.

"On my version of Earth," Vanitas told him. "They had the same feelings. But... life decided to royally fuck them over." He looked up in anger. "Damn those new Who writers on my world."

Roxas continued to look at his friend in surprise, but eventually his anger passed and they continued watching in a more upbeat manner.

They crossed the border into the state with Natasha resting her feet up on the dashboard, staring at Steve curiously.

"Where did Captain America learn how to steal a car?" she asked.

"Nazi Germany," Steve answered.

"Mmm," Natasha hummed in understanding.

"Rough time," Vanitas commented, nodding his head in understanding.

"And we're borrowing," Steve corrected Natasha. "Take your feet off the dash."

Natasha looked at him with a slight smile for a second before following his instructions and taking her foot off the dashboard.

"All right, I have a question for you, of which you do not have to answer," Natasha told him, getting his attention. "I feel like, if you don't answer it, though, you're kind of answering it, you know."

"What?" Steve asked impatiently.

"Was that your first kiss since 1945?" Natasha asked, smile on her face.

"Screw Doc, this is more interesting," Vanitas announced, pausing right before the Doctor crashed the TARDIS (again). He and Roxas looked at Steve with interest, Vanitas with eager interest, and Roxas with confused interest.

"That bad, huh?" Steve asked Natasha.

"I didn't say that," Natasha announced.

"Well, it kind of sounds like that's what you're saying," Steve informed her.

"No, I didn't," Natasha corrected him. "I was just wondering how much practice you've had."

"You don't need practice," Steve informed her.

"Yeah, you do!" Vanitas remarked. "Why do you think so many needy teen boys and girls are constantly making out with posters or dummies they have?"

"How do you know they do that?" Roxas asked, eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"Shut up," Vanitas quickly told him.

"He's right, though," Natasha informed Steve. "Everybody needs practice."

"It was not my first kiss since 1945," Steve informed her. "I'm 95, I'm not dead."

"Nobody special, huh?" Natasha asked.

Steve chuckled at that.

"Believe it or not, it's kind of hard to find someone with shared life experience," Steve informed her.

"Well, that's all right," Natasha informed him. "You just make something up."

"Build a relationship based on lies," Vanitas assessed. "Yeah, 'cause that always ends well."

"Yeah," Steve agreed. "Make something up... what, like you?"

"I don't know," Natasha admitted. "The truth is a matter of circumstance. It's not all things to all people, all the time. ...Neither am I."

There was a slight smile on her face as she told him the last bit.

"That's a tough way to live," Steve commented.

"It's a good way not to die, though," Natasha admitted.

"50-50," Vanitas commented.

"You know, it's kind of hard to trust someone when you don't know who that someone really is," Steve informed Natasha.

"Yeah," Natasha admitted. She paused for a second. "What do you want me to be?"

"How about a friend?" Steve asked her.

"It's a good thing to be," Vanitas informed her.

Natasha chuckled as she looked out the front window.

"Well, there's a chance you guys might be in the wrong business," she informed them.

Steve took in her words and looked back out at the road in front of them.

"So, how are you liking our world, Roxas?" Steve asked the blonde in the back seat.

"Well," Roxas said in thought. "It's definitely interesting, to say the least. I can certainly say I've never seen a world like this before. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing, I still can't decide."

"Well, here's hoping once this whole mess clears up, we can show you how it's a good thing," Vanitas informed him.

"You know, while the subject is still kind of fresh," Natasha announced. "When was _your_ last kiss, V?"

"Oh," Vanitas chuckled slightly. "You don't wanna hear about that."

"Oh, come on," Natasha insisted. "Roxas doesn't have a heart yet, so who knows if he can kiss anybody. You're the only one left who hasn't shared about that."

"Well," Vanitas sighed out. "I was in a bar three weeks ago. A lot of people were drinking and smoking. One blonde girl, who I could tell was wasted AF, just suddenly grabbed me. I think she saw the jacket I was wearing and mistook me for her boyfriend. She just grabbed me and stuck her tongue in my mouth."

"Ew," Roxas commented, his eyebrows furrowed in disgust.

"So, what'd you do then?" Steve asked.

"What else could I have done, a drunk girl was Frenching me!" Vanitas exclaimed. "I kissed her back, and it was _good_."

"Sounds like a fun time," Natasha commented. "Why didn't you wanna tell us?"

Vanitas sighed out.

"After we finished kissing, she threw up on my shirt," he admitted.

"That's a... pretty good reason to not want to share something like that," Roxas commented.

"Sorry I asked," Natasha admitted, looking out the front window again.

"I'm sorry I didn't push her off," Vanitas admitted.

Natasha pulled out her phone and held it up to track the signal a bit more as Steve slowed the car as they got closer to the gate. The four of them got out the car and walked up to it.

"This is it," Steve announced, carrying his shield.

"The file came from these coordinates," Natasha informed them, putting her phone away.

"So did I," Steve informed them.

They had arrived at Camp Lehigh, the military training camp that Steve had been accepted into before being injected with the super soldier serum.

Night soon feel as they entered the camp and looked around, Natasha leading the way with her phone again. Just in case of danger, Steve carried his shield, Roxas summoned his Keyblade, and Vanitas pulled out his Glock from earlier.

"This camp was where I was trained," Steve informed them as they walked next to a large brick building.

"Change much?" Natasha asked.

"A little," Steve admitted, looking up at the top of a flag pole.

Steve had a slight flashback to a drill sergeant leading soldiers in training in running across the field, which Vanitas saw. In the man's flashback, of course the younger version of himself was falling behind the line pretty far, due to the asthma he had. Young Steve stopped and looked in amazement at current Steve before continuing to run after the platoon he was pretty far from.

"You have weird visions," Vanitas informed the Captain.

" _You_ could talk," he remarked.

"Touché," Vanitas admitted.

"This is a dead end," Natasha announced. "Zero heat signatures, zero waves, not even radio."

Steve looked up at her on the walkway above him, and his attention was drawn to the munitions bunker past her. Vanitas followed his gaze, and his eyebrows furrowed in equal confusion.

"Whoever wrote the file must have used a router to throw people off," Natasha continued. She looked at the sandy haired and ravenette boys, curiously. "What is it?"

"Army regulations forbid storing munitions within 500 yards of the barracks," Steve explained as he and Vanitas led the way to the building.

"They don't trust the cadets to not take them and light up the skyline or each other with lead," Vanitas added.

"This building is in the wrong place," Steve informed them as they neared the building.

"How do you know so much about military stuff?" Roxas asked Vanitas.

"I don't know," Vanitas admitted as they reached the door and saw it was sealed with a lock.

They stood back and let Steve break the lock with his shield. Opening the door, the four walked down a set of stairs into a dark room. Steve flipped a switch, and lights came on, revealing it to be an old SHIELD planning room with many tables, chairs, and filing cabinets.

"This is SHIELD," Natasha assessed.

"Maybe where it started," Steve commented as they walked down the middle row between the desks.

"I can see it," Roxas admitted.

They reached a doorway which they walked through, with many empty cabinet slots along the new room. They walked up to a wall and looked at one of three pictures attached to it.

"And there's Stark's father," Natasha informed them.

"Howard," Steve assessed.

The picture of Howard Stark was in between a picture of Peggy Carter in her youth, and a sergeant that was helping Steve to near the end of the war, that Vanitas swore looked like an actor from his Earth named Tommy Lee Jones.

"Who's the girl?" Natasha asked, looking at Steve.

Roxas' eyes widened slightly at the younger picture of the old woman they had just met the previous day, remembering how she and Steve had apparently gotten close during their time together. He looked up at Steve sympathetically, who stayed silent at Natasha's words before turning and walking down between the two large cabinet slots. Looking around, Steve noticed that one of the cabinets had a bit of a stronger spider web than the others, and looked like it'd be easy to move.

"If you're already working in a secret office..." he announced.

He grabbed the side, and Vanitas and Roxas helped him roll the cabinet to the side, revealing a set of double doors for an elevator.

"Why do you need to hide the elevator?" Steve finished.

"I'm having serious flashbacks to Hollow Bastion," Vanitas commented. "Not actual, otherwise I'd be in a lot of pain."

The group nodded their heads before Natasha used her phone to scan the finger prints on the number pad below the elevator button. The device gave her the correct code, and she pressed the right buttons for the sequence. The elevator bell then dinged, opening right for the quartet.

With Roxas, Steve, and Vanitas still gripping their weapons just in case, they entered the elevator and took it further down into the more secret parts of this SHIELD base. When the doors opened, they showed the quartet another large, dark room.

Looking around curiously, the four of them walked out of the elevator, the doors closing behind them. As they walked further into the room, the lights came on, showing that inside the large room were old computers and old servers lining some of the walls. Large monitors were on the central device in the center of the room, powered down. The four stepped up onto the central point, still looking around curiously.

"This can't be the data point," Natasha insisted. "This technology is ancient."

She stepped up to the main console with a smile on her face as if this was some kind of joke.

"Look," Roxas announced, pointing at a more advanced looking part attached to the main console.

She followed his gaze to see the more advanced part, complete with ports to plug in flash drives. Pulling out the flash drive they had in thought, the boys watched as Natasha plugged it into a waiting port.

In response, more lights came on, revealing that the room was much bigger, since on either side of them, even more large servers stretched out as far as they could see on both sides. The servers all whirred as they came on, no doubt a result from the flash drive. A camera on the central device ignited and looked up at the four in front of it.

" _Initiate system?"_ an electronic voice asked as the words came up in green letters on the main screen.

Natasha walked up to the dust covered keyboard and started typing.

"Y-E-S spells yes," she announced as she typed exactly that into the computer before pressing enter.

They watched as the main console started powering up in response to her typing.

"Shall we play a game?" Natasha asked in a creepy voice with a smile on her face.

"I'll get Billy," Vanitas joked, going along with her.

"It's from a movie that was really..." Natasha started to tell Steve and Roxas.

"I know, I saw it," Steve interrupted her.

"Hey, he didn't," Natasha informed him, gesturing to Roxas.

Their attentions were drawn back to the computer as it started powering up. Distorted green light erupted from the screen, occasionally flickering into the distorted version of a face with glasses, while the camera on top was pointed at Steve.

" _Rogers, Steven_ ," a German sounding voice announced. " _Born 1918._ "

The camera shifted to Natasha.

" _Romanoff, Natalia Alianovna_ ," the voice announced, garnering their attentions. " _Born 1984._ "

"It's some kind of recording," Natasha insisted.

" _I am not a recording,_ Fraeulein," the voice announced before the camera looked at Roxas and Vanitas. " _Jordan, Vanitas, born estimated 1998. Unknown specimen, born estimated 1999._ "

"Twenty-six," Vanitas muttered to himself in annoyance.

"Definitely not a recording," Roxas announced, just as surprised as the others.

" _I may not be the man I was when the Captain took me prisoner in 1945_ ," the voice announced, and Steve's eyes widened in realization. " _But I am._ "

An old mug-shot of an angry looking bald guy with glasses appeared on one of the monitors. Vanitas thought that it looked like an actor from his Earth called Toby Jones.

"You know this thing?" Natasha asked.

"Arnim Zola was a German scientist who worked for the Red Skull," Steve explained as he walked down the step and started walking around the giant console. "He's been dead for years."

"Tell that to the face on this device," Vanitas commented, gesturing to the main console.

" _Correct, Herr Jordan,_ " Zola announced. His next words were directed at Steve. " _First correction, I am Swiss. Second, look around you. I have never been more alive."_ They looked around at the many servers curiously as he continued. " _In 1972, I received a terminal diagnosis. Science could not save my body. My mind, however, that was worth saving on 200,000 feet of databanks._ "

Steve walked back up onto the central part with the other three.

" _You are standing in my brain_ ," Zola finished.

"Is... Is that how Somebodies work?" Roxas asked, confused.

"Just the really fucked up ones," Vanitas informed him.

"How did you get here?" Steve asked Zola as he went back to where he was standing before, on Natasha's left, facing the main console.

" _Invited_ ," Zola informed them.

"It was Operation Paperclip after World War II," Natasha explained. "SHIELD recruited German scientists with strategic value."

"And they didn't think that would have negative repercussions?" Vanitas asked.

" _Americans always hope someone will lend them a hand when asked_ ," Zola remarked. " _They thought I could help their cause. I also helped my own._ "

"HYDRA died with the Red Skull," Steve informed Zola.

Vanitas had a slight vision to what Steve told them was the death of the Red Skull. The tall literally red headed man picked up the Tesseract with his hand, and disappeared in a flash of many blue lights. Recognizing how the Tesseract worked, Vanitas could tell that wasn't a killing blast, but a transporting one. But he shrugged it off. 70 years, what were the odds that this Red Skull prick was still alive?

" _Cut off one head, two more will take its place_ ," Zola informed them, his face being replaced with the HYDRA sign on the screen before becoming two of his own face.

"Unless you burn the stump," Vanitas countered. "Yeah, I know about Hydras. I fought two."

"So prove it," Steve ordered Zola.

Images suddenly started appearing and disappearing on the screens on each side of the main screen.

" _Accessing archive_ ," Zola announced as they watched, bewildered. A picture of what they recognized as Johan Schmidt appeared on one next to them. " _HYDRA was founded on the belief that humanity could not be trusted with its own freedom._ " The screen started showing clips during HYDRA's reign of terror across the world. " _What we did not realize was that if you try to take that freedom, they resist._ "

The clips shifted to Steve in his old Captain America outfit, leading his soldiers against HYDRA.

" _The war taught us much_ ," Zola continued as more clips continued to play. " _Humanity needed to surrender its freedom willingly. After the war, SHIELD was founded, and I was recruited. The new HYDRA grew. A beautiful parasite inside SHIELD._ "

The group watched with their eyebrows rising quickly. Goosebumps grew on Roxas' arms below his sleeves at the German's words.

" _For 70 years, HYDRA has been secretly feeding crisis, reaping war, and when history did not cooperate, history was changed,_ " Zola continued. The clips showed images of the Winter Soldier mounted with a rifle at a high point to emphasize their point.

"That's impossible," Natasha insisted. "SHIELD would have stopped you."

" _Accidents will happen_ ," Zola remarked as the monitor showed a newspaper clipping of the death of Howard Stark in a car crash, then a picture of Nick Fury with "Deceased" across his face.

"Son of a... bitch!" Vanitas exclaimed.

"That's the best you could come up with?" Natasha asked.

"There's a toddler present," Vanitas informed her, gesturing to Roxas, who's eyebrows were furrowed in confusion at his friend's words.

" _HYDRA created a world so chaotic that humanity is finally ready to sacrifice its freedom, to gain its security,_ " Zola continued. The clips then started showing parts of Project Insight. " _Once a purification process is complete, HYDRA's new world order will arise. With a little help from our benefactors..._ "

The clips showed bits of Maleficent with Heartless minions following her orders, making everyone's eyes somehow widen even further.

" _We won, Captain and Keyblade Wielders,_ " Zola informed them. " _Your death amounts to the same as your life. A zero sum._ "

Steve punched the screen Zola's blurred face was on in," rage with his right hand, causing the glass to crack all around and turn off. Zola's face simply reappeared on another monitor.

" _As I was saying..._ " the computerized scientist continued.

"What's on this drive?" Steve demanded of the German, walking to face the monitor.

" _Project Insight requires insight,_ " Zola informed them. " _So, I wrote an algorithm._ "

"What kind of algorithm?" Natasha asked. "What does it do?"

"Tell us!" Vanitas announced, pointing his Glock right at the screen. "Otherwise, my boy and I are gonna show you how much we hate your old-fashioned technology."

" _The answer to your question is fascinating,_ " Zola informed them. " _Unfortunately, you shall be too dead to hear it_."

They turned towards the elevators to see metal doors sliding shut over the elevator doors. Steve threw his shield towards them, but it was too late. The shield bounced off of the metal doors and against a ceramic pillar before flying back towards Steve, who caught it. Natasha pulled out her phone as it started to beep.

"Guys, we got a bogey," she announced. "Short range ballistic. 30 seconds tops."

"Who fired it?" Steve asked.

"SHIELD," Natasha admitted.

"HYDRA," Roxas corrected her.

" _I am afraid I have been stalling, Captain,_ " Zola informed them.

Vanitas fired at the screen in annoyance while Natasha grabbed the flash drive. The screen exploded in glass and electricity as they looked around desperately for a way out.

" _Admit it, it is better this way,_ " Zola ordered them as Steve ran to a floor grate. " _We are, both of us..._ " Steve ripped out the grate with his bare hand and gestured to the others. "... _out of time._ "

The four jumped into the small space just as the missile hit, causing a giant explosion that rained plaster, ceramic, and who knows what else over their heads. Steve held on to Natasha as he held his shield up over their heads to block them from it. There was barely enough space for two of them underneath, so Vanitas shielded Roxas with just himself, knowing he couldn't feel the pain. Both Steve and Vanitas exclaimed at the excursion of defending their friends as the entire base collapsed and debris covered them.

Not long after, both Steve Vanitas were grunting as they pushed through the debris to try to make a way out. Pretty much carrying Natasha and Roxas, the two managed to force their way through the large pieces of debris to make a stable path out. Once they did, Steve carried Natasha in his arms and Vanitas carried Roxas on his back as they walked out of the debris into the open air.

Looking around warily, they quickly had to start moving as they saw Quinjets flying through the air towards them.

"Fuck, move!" Vanitas exclaimed as they started running.

The two ran as fast as they could out of there, hoping to find a safe place.

* * *

Alexander Pierce walked through the hallways of his house towards his kitchen. He reached the room and opened up the fridge, not seeing the Winter Soldier and Pete sitting at a table facing him, with a handgun on the table. Pierce pulled out a carton of milk and set it on a counter, jumping at the sight of the two. He slowly closed the fridge behind him as he faced them.

"I'm going to go, Mr. Pierce," his maid announced from another room. "You need anything before I leave?"

"No..." Pierce called out. "Uh, it's fine, Renata, you can go home."

"Okay, night-night," Renata called out.

"Good night," Pierce reciprocated, still facing the two at the table. He heard the door close from the other room as he started walking around the counter. "Want some milk?"

"I wouldn't say 'no' to a glass," Pete informed the man, so he grabbed two glass cups instead of one.

He poured the liquid into the cups at his counter.

"Never say I was an insensitive host," Pierce admitted. "The timetable has moved. Our window is limited."

He took a drink from his cup before walking over and giving Pete a glass, which he drank from.

"What's the problem?" Pete asked, curious.

"Four targets, Level Six," Pierce explained as he sat in the free chair. "One of them Vanitas Jordan."

"Uh, that nimrod has been causing me trouble since the day I met him," Pete complained.

"You already heard about what he did to Jafar, Oogie Boogie, Hades, Ursula, and Hook with his Keybladed friend," Pierce informed him. "He's with another Keyblade Wielder and two soldiers from this world. They already cost me Zola, you don't want to imagine what they could do with the plan."

"We just have to make sure Project Insight passes smoothly," Pete repeated, nodding at the man. "They we'll have our army."

Pierce nodded his head at the cat and looked at the Winter Soldier, who had remained silent this whole time.

"I want them confirmed death in 10 hours," Pierce told him. "Jordan might be a problem due to his unique lifeline. Luckily, you will also have the assistance of the Heartless during this mission, just in case."

He waved to the side, and purple energy surrounded his hand. Heartless suddenly appeared wearing SHIELD jumpsuits, similar to the one Vanitas had not too long ago. These ones had heads covered with helmets, which had clear enough visors to show their yellow beaded eyes. The Heartless insignia was on the left part of their chests, with the HYDRA insignia on the right. Various weaponry was around the monsters' belts, signifying they were ready.

The Winter Soldier nodded simply at the Heartless.

"Sorry," Renata announced, walking into the kitchen, garnering the men's attentions. "Mr. Pierce, I... I forgot my... phone."

Pierce looked at her with genuine sadness as she went wide-eyed at the sight of the Winter Soldier, Pete, and the Heartless. She looked from the angry looking man at the table, to the curious giant cat, to the sad form of Pierce.

"Oh, Renata, I wish you would have knocked," Pierce informed her.

He then picked up the gun on the table and pointed it at her. Pierce fired twice, and she exclaimed in pain before falling to the ground dead.

"No more setbacks?" Pete asked.

"No more setbacks," Pierce informed him, coldly.

Pete laughed as he took another sip of milk from his glass. Things were coming along... semi-smoothly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Man, this was such a shock the first time I watched this movie, even though I watched it in 2018. I actually did get goosebumps while watching it again for this chapter


	7. Falcon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group recruits Sam Wilson, then interrogate Jasper Sitwell, learning some important things about Project Insight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anyone else really like Sam? I'm glad he and Bucky are getting their own show eventually.

Sam Wilson breathed in and out as he re-entered his apartment building after finishing his morning run. He went into his fridge and pulled out a big bottle of orange juice. He was about to take a sip directly from the bottle before a knocking from his door garnered his attention. Curious, Sam screwed the cap back on and placed the bottle on the counter next to him.

Opening the blinds, Sam was in for a surprise. He slid open the glass door to the side to see the dirty forms of Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, Vanitas Jordan, and Roxas.

"Hey, guys," Sam greeted.

"We're sorry about this," Steve told him. "We need a place to go."

"Everyone we know is trying to kill us," Natasha informed him.

"We're having a rough day," Vanitas admitted, shrugging his shoulders.

Sam looked over them for a second.

"Not everyone," he countered.

He stepped aside and let them walk into his apartment.

"Thank you, man," Vanitas said, patting the man on the shoulder as he walked past him.

"Thanks," Roxas added, nodding his head.

Sam nodded his head back at Roxas before looking around outside to make sure no one saw them. He then slid the door shut again and closed the blinds again.

They cleaned themselves up in a bathroom connected to what they guessed was a guest bedroom. Natasha was drying off her hair while sitting on the bed, Roxas had already changed into a blue shirt with red and orange striped across the chest courtesy of Vanitas, Vanitas had cleaned up and was chatting with Sam outside, and Steve was finishing washing his hands in the bathroom. He and Natasha had discarded their jackets and were wearing tank tops.

Steve looked at Natasha inquisitively through the bathroom mirror before moving to lean in the doorway to look at her, Roxas sitting in a chair in the room.

"You okay?" Steve asked Natasha.

"Yeah," she told him, softly.

Even Roxas didn't believe her. Steve finished drying his hands and placed a towel on the bathroom counter before walking into the room and sitting on the bed.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"We're all friends here," Roxas informed her. "You can tell us."

Natasha looked at them for a second in thought.

"When I first joined SHIELD I thought I was going straight," she admitted. She looked to the side in thought. "But I guess I just traded in the KGB for HYDRA."

She looked down and sighed out.

"I thought I knew whose lies I was telling..." Natasha said. "...but I guess I can't tell the difference anymore."

"There's a chance you might be in the wrong business," Steve informed her.

"Happens to everybody," Roxas assured her as she smiled at Steve throwing her own words back at her. "I mean... I hear it happens to everybody."

The two smirked slightly at Roxas's words.

"I owe you," Natasha told Steve.

Steve shook his head.

"It's okay," he assured her.

"If it was the other way around..." Natasha started. "...and it was down to me to save your life, now you be honest with me... would you trust me to do it?"

"I would now," Steve assured her. "And I'm always honest."

"So would I," Roxas assured. "You're a good person... and I don't even know how to lie."

Once again, the two smirked at the blonde's words before continuing the conversation.

"Well, you seem pretty chipper for someone who just found out they died for nothing," Natasha told Steve with a smirk.

"Well..." Steve said, leaning back against the wall. "...guess I just like to know who I'm fighting."

"We made breakfast," Sam announced, leaning against a wall with Vanitas. "If you guys eat that sort of thing. V made omelettes, they look pretty good."

Steve smirked as the two walked back into the kitchen. They regrouped in the kitchen while Sam spread butter on some bread. They had already explained most of the situation to Sam during their time there.

"So, the question is, who at SHIELD could launch a domestic missile strike?" Natasha asked.

Sam looked over from his spot in the kitchen to Steve sitting in a chair in front of a table.

"Pierce," Steve announced.

"That makes sense," Vanitas admitted, to their confusion.

"How so?" Steve asked.

"When we met with him, I sensed a strong sense of danger originating from him," Vanitas admitted. "When he was angry. That danger... it was very similar to a couple of times I was around Maleficent and her lackeys during my first journey. I think... another one of the abilities I had was being able to sense the amount of darkness in people around me... Gotta admit, that'd be a great way to figure out whose an enemy and who isn't."

"If you sensed darkness in him," Roxas said. "Then maybe the Winter Soldier was a fluke. Pierce might be the dark presence I was sent here to take out."

"I have no problem with taking him out," Natasha announced, walking across the dining room. "But he happens to be sitting on top of the most secure building in the world."

"But he's not working alone," Steve announced. "Zola's algorithm was on the Lumerian Star."

"So was Jasper Sitwell," Natasha announced.

Steve looked up at her.

"We need to change the question," Vanitas announced.

"Exactly," Steve agreed. "The real question is, how do the four most wanted people in Washington kidnap a SHIELD officer in broad daylight?"

"It'd be too obvious if I jumped in with my Vortex Manipulator," Vanitas announced as Sam set the bread down and started walking into the dining room with them. "Plus, Roxas couldn't use a dark corridor because we don't know what it does to normal people. And we want this guy unharmed."

"The answer is, you don't," Sam announced.

He set some papers on the table, starting with a picture of him and his old friend, Riley.

"What's this?" Steve asked.

"Call it a resume," Sam informed them.

Natasha picked up the paper and observed it.

"Is this Bakhmala?" she asked. "The Khalid Khandil mission, that was you?" She looked at Steve. "You didn't say he was a Pararescue."

Steve took the picture.

"Is this Riley?" he asked.

"Yeah," Sam answered.

"He seems nice in this picture," Roxas said.

"I heard they couldn't bring in the choppers because of the RPGs," Natasha announced. "What'd you use? A stealth chute?"

"No," Sam informed them, picking up a file to hand to Steve. "These."

Steve opened the file, and he, Roxas, and Vanitas looked over the pictures and schematics in the file. Even Roxas was impressed, albeit a little confused.

"I thought you said you were a pilot," Steve remarked.

"I never said pilot," Sam corrected him, smirking.

Steve smirked before looking down in the file again before shaking his head.

"I can't ask you to do this, Sam," he informed Sam. "You got out for a good reason."

"Dude, Captain America and two Keyblade Wielders need my help," Sam informed him. "There's no better reason to get back in."

"Man's got a point," Vanitas admitted.

Steve looked down at the papers again with a slight smirk.

"Where can we get our hands on one of these things?" Steve asked.

"The last one is at Fort Meade," Sam informed him. "Behind three guarded gates and a 12-inch steel wall."

Steve and Natasha looked at each other in thought before Natasha shrugged her shoulders.

"Shouldn't be a problem," Steve informed him before setting down the file labelled "Exo-7 Falcon."

"How is this not the weirdest thing I've seen on this world so far?" Roxas asked.

"Because this is a pretty unique world," Vanitas informed him.

"I'll take that as a compliment," Sam announced, smirking.

* * *

Jasper Sitwell was, at the moment, walking out of a restaurant with the Senator, with many men in suits around them for protection.

"Listen, I got to fly home tonight because I got some constituency problem and I got to press the flesh," the senator informed Sitwell as they walked towards a set of stairs leading to the sidewalk.

"Any constituent in particular, Mr. Senator?" Sitwell asked the senator as they walked down the stairs.

"Oh, no, not really," the senator admitted as they reached the bottom of the steps. He turned to look at Sitwell with a slight smirk. "Twenty-three, kind of hot. Real hot, you know? Wants to be a reporter, I think. I don't know. Who listens at that point?"

"Doesn't sound like much of a problem to me," Sitwell rebutted, smile on his face.

"Really?" the senator asked. "Because she's killing my back. This isn't the place to talk about it." He tapped a pin on Sitwell's suit lapel. "This is a nice pin."

"Thank you," Sitwell said.

"Come here," the senator announced. The two embraced in a hug so he could tell Sitwell, "Hail HYDRA."

Nearby, Sam watched as the senator started walking down the stairs, hunching slightly.

"See, it's right there..." he started to say.

"Yeah, I just saw that," Sitwell informed him.

"Should I get it checked?" the senator asked.

"Yeah, I think you should," Sitwell admitted.

The senator walked down the stairs, with a lot of the men in suits following him. Two remained behind Sitwell as he noticed his phone ringing. He pulled it out and saw that he was apparently getting a call from Alexander Pierce.

"I need a minute," Sitwell informed them. "Bring the car around."

The two men nodded and started down the stairs and down the road while Sitwell answered his phone call.

"Yes, sir?" he asked.

"Agent Sitwell, how was lunch?" Sam's voice asked, surprising the man. "I hear the crab cakes here are delicious."

"Who is this?" Sitwell asked.

"The good looking guy in the sunglasses, your 10 o'clock," Sam informed him. Sitwell looked in that direction, curious. "Your other 10 o'clock."

Sitwell looked in that direction to see Sam far in the distance across the groups of people sitting at tables eating food, sitting in his own chair while leaning against a railing, looking pretty cool wearing sunglasses and a leather jacket with his phone up to his ear in one hand and a drink in his other hand.

"There you go," Sam informed him before holding up the drink in place of waving.

"What do you want?" Sitwell asked.

"You're going to go around the corner to your right," Sam explained. "There's a grey car two spaces down. You and I are gonna take a ride."

"And why would I do that?" Sitwell asked.

"Because that tie looks really expensive, and I'd hate to mess it up," Sam informed him.

Sitwell looked down in surprise to see a red laser sight pointed on his tie on his chest. He looked around desperately to try to see where it was originating from, to no use.

He had no use but to follow Sam's instructions, where he was accosted immediately by Steve, Natasha, Roxas, and Vanitas. They took him up a flight of stairs of a tall building and threw the man through the door onto the roof. He exclaimed as he rolled on the floor while the quartet walked in after him.

"Tell us about Zola's algorithm," Steve ordered.

"Otherwise things are about to go pretty south for you," Roxas threatened, Keyblade in hand.

"Never heard of it," Sitwell denied, putting his glasses back on as he backed away from the four immediately walking towards him.

"Then what were you doing on the Lumerian Star?" Vanitas ordered, carrying the sniper rifle with the laser point he used earlier to threaten him.

"I was throwing up," Sitwell lied as they backed him to the railing. "I get seasick."

He waved his arms to try to get his balance back as he was pressed against the railing. Steve grabbed the man by his suit jacket and held on to him in an intimidating manner, which had little effect on Sitwell. Natasha even looked to the side, in as equal disbelief as the man.

"Is this little display meant to insinuate that you're gonna throw me off the roof?" Sitwell asked. "Because it's really not your style, Rogers."

"You're right," Steve admitted. He took his hands off the man's suit and smoothed the sleeves a bit. "It's not... It's hers."

He stepped to the side, and Natasha kicked Sitwell in the chest. He screamed in terror as he fell off the ledge and down towards the ground.

"Oh, wait," Natasha said. "What about that girl from Accounting, Laura..."

"Lillian," Steve corrected her. "Lip piercing, right?"

"Yeah, she's cute," Natasha told him.

"Yeah," Steve admitted. "I'm not ready for that."

"What, you got a thing against piercings?" Vanitas asked.

"You can get a piercing on something other than your ear?" Roxas asked, eyebrows furrowed in curiosity.

Their attentions were drawn back to Sitwell as Sam carried the man up the building once again, Falcon Wings fully equipped. They flew over the quartet, and Sam dropped the man back onto the roof before landing on his feet a few feet away from them. The wings retracted into the pack on his back and he turned to face them, red goggles over his eyes, making him look like a bad ass.

"Bad ass, dude," Vanitas announced as they walked across the roof towards Sitwell.

"Zola's algorithm is a program..." Sitwell announced, holding up a hand in surrender. "...for choosing Insight's targets."

"What targets?" Steve asked.

"You," Sitwell answered. "A TV anchor in Cairo, the Under Secretary of Defense, a high school valedictorian in Iowa City, Bruce Banner, Stephen Strange, anyone who's a threat to HYDRA. Now, or in the future."

"In the future?" Roxas asked, confused. "Future's unpredictable. How could an algorithm know?"

Sitwell laughed at Roxas and Steve's confusion.

"How could it not?" he asked. He stood up. "The 21st century is a digital book. Zola taught HYDRA how to read it. Your bank records, medical histories, voting patterns, emails, phone calls, your damn SAT scores! Zola's algorithm evaluates people's past to predict their future."

"And what then?" Steve asked.

"Oh, my god," Sitwell sighed out, looking down in terror. "Pierce is gonna kill me."

"What then?" Steve asked more sternly.

Sam held Sitwell by the shoulder to make him keep standing up straight.

"Then the Insight helicarriers scratch people off the list," Sitwell informed them. "A few million at a time."

Steve took in that information.

"And how does Maleficent work into this factor?" Vanitas asked.

"Who?" Sitwell asked, playing the dummy once again.

Vanitas turned his rifle around and smacked the man in the face with it, breaking his glasses and making him fall to the ground in pain once again.

"Tell the truth or you're going back over the roof without your legs!" Vanitas announced.

"She funded a lot of HYDRA's most recent projects!" Sitwell admitted. "The funds from Hollow Bastion were worth a lot more on this world, so she granted it to Pierce. She was a part of the team of allies she put together, consisting of Oogie Boogie, Captain Hook, Loki, Ursula, Hades, and Jafar."

"What, and Pierce just didn't know Loki was planning to invade this world?" Steve asked, eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"He was led to believe from the Jotun that he would be leading Heartless against Asgard," Sitwell admitted. "He didn't know that they'd be invading this world."

"Let's stop talking about the past for a minute!" Roxas announced. "If Pierce was allied with Maleficent, then how does that tie into Project Insight?"

"See, he's asking the right questions," Natasha pointed out.

"She showed us how to combine darkness with technology," Sitwell informed them. "That book you have, Vanitas? The one that lets you combine light with technology? There are also books that do the opposite effect?"

Vanitas frowned at his words.

"They're combining darkness with the helicarriers?" Vanitas asked. Sitwell nodded. "What's that have to do with..."

With his eyebrows still furrowed, Vanitas' eyebrows then rose slightly.

"You're joking," Vanitas denied.

"What's wrong?" Steve asked.

"I read about this in an old report about the Heartless," Vanitas informed him. "When someone has a whole lot of darkness in their heart when they die, they turn into a gigantic Heartless, usually symbolic to something as part of their previous lives. Say... a prison guard with a lot of darkness in their heart died, and their heart was consumed by all that darkness. They'd become a huge Heartless that tried imprisoning people."

He looked back at Sitwell.

"Those guns have been refitted, haven't they?" Vanitas asked. Sitwell nodded his head. "Fuck, that's what I was afraid of."

"How do you mean, 'refitted'?" Natasha asked.

"The blasters," Vanitas confirmed. "It all revolves around them. Not only do they kill people, but they force their hearts to be corrupted by the darkness from the blasts. As they die, their hearts are consumed, and they become giant Heartless."

The four others widened their eyes as he explained it to them.

"Captain America, Iron Man, Black Widow, even the Hulk turned into giant Heartless," Vanitas remarked. "And that's just you guys. Imagine it: millions of people turned into Heartless as tall as a house, with millions slowly added at a time. That'd be enough to take over this world within hours, and many others in days. This is what Maleficent wanted: she had too many soldier Heartless, so she recruited Pierce to give her generals."

"Couldn't we..." Roxas started to say, uncertainty in his voice. "No, it takes me a while to take out just one giant Heartless, even with an ally. I don't think even the Organization could take out millions of Heartless like that."

"They couldn't," Vanitas informed him. "This was her way to cast all the worlds back into darkness, so she could rule with her trusted lieutenants by her side."

Vanitas looked down at Sitwell in anger.

"And where are you in all of this?" he asked.

"Where HYDRA originally wanted," Sitwell informed him. "We control this world, while occasionally reporting to Maleficent."

Vanitas crouched down to look the man in the eye.

"Gonna be hard to do that since Maleficent is gone," Vanitas informed the man, surprising him a bit. "Yeah, she turned into a dragon, and me and my boys killed her."

"Why doesn't that surprise me?" Sitwell muttered to himself.

Vanitas stood up again and looked around at his allies, Roxas with his eyes widened.

"What do we do now?" Roxas asked.

"Nothing's changed," Steve informed him. "We have to stop Project Insight."

"Yeah, but..." Roxas said, looking up at Steve in disbelief. "Can we? Three giant freaking helicarriers that shoot stuff that turn people into giant Heartless. If we fail, the catastrophes could be universally horrible."

"You're right," Natasha informed him. "The stakes here... are a lot greater than what happened in New York."

"We're not just talking about our world now, we're talking about a lot of worlds," Steve agreed, nodding his head. "But it's still the same problem."

"So there has to be a solution that we can find," Vanitas agreed, nodding his head.

"We just have to find it," Sam agreed.

"You idiots!" Sitwell yelled at them. "You actually think-"

Vanitas cut Sitwell off by kicking him in the face, not even looking at him as he fell back to the ground.

"Shut up," he told the man, nonchalantly.

"It won't be easy," Steve admitted, looking down at Roxas. "But that's never stopped us before."

"We can get through it," Natasha assured Roxas.

"As long as we stick together," Vanitas added, holding out his hand.

Steve nodded his head and placed his hand over Vanitas. Natasha placed her hand over Steve's, and Sam placed his over Natasha's. Roxas looked at the four looking at him expectantly, eyebrow raised.

"So you guys don't care that there's a chance that we're all gonna die?" he asked.

"Again, never stopped us before," Vanitas admitted, and he and the others laughed slighty.

"Aw, what the hell," Roxas sighed out before placing his hand over Sam's. "I don't even have a heart, so what else can I lose?"

"A lot," Steve informed him as they all took their hands back.

"I know," Roxas informed him. "So what do we do now?"

"Help me with this guy," Vanitas instructed, leaning down towards Sitwell.

Roxas walked forwards and helped Vanitas carry the semi-conscious Sitwell, his arms around the shoulders of his shorter captors.

"Let's get to the car," Steve announced as they started walking back to the door. "We've got work to do."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's how Pierce and HYDRA are connected to Maleficent. And as for the thing with the darkness turning people who die into giant Heartless... well, that did get confirmed with Mother Gothel and Hans in KH3. As those two died, they became the giant Heartless bosses we had to fight. Plus, that little bit relates to something else that happens in this story...


	8. "Who the hell is Bucky?"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group faces off against the Winter Soldier, learning some important bits about who he is

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember Vanitas' other ability of leaving behind images and teleporting above his enemy from behind to attack? Well, one of those appears again

The five of them crowded into Sam's car with Sitwell and started down the road. It might have been a tight space, but with Roxas, Vanitas, and Natasha being a bit shorter than the others made it a bit bearable as they sat in the back. They drove down the highway, and started going over a bridge, Sitwell complaining along the way.

"HYDRA doesn't like leaks," Sitwell informed them.

"Then why don't you try sticking a cork in it?" Sam snapped, looking in the rearview mirror at the man behind him from his place in the Driver's seat. *** _1_ ***

"Yeah, shut the fuck up already," Vanitas added, annoyed.

"Insight's launching in 16 hours," Natasha announced. "We're cutting it a little bit close here."

"That seems to sound about right for our agenda," Roxas commented.

"I know," Steve admitted. "We'll use him to bypass the DNA scans and access the helicarriers directly."

Sitwell looked surprised by the man's words.

"What?" he asked. "Are you crazy?"

"Yeah," Vanitas informed him, nonchalantly. "What's your point?"

"That is a terrible, terrible idea," Sitwell told the group.

"Okay," Vanitas announced as he pulled out a Desert Eagle and aimed it at the man's groin. "Shut up if you wanna keep your dick!"

Something then landed on the roof of the car, making everyone but Sam look up in surprise and confusion, but only because he was still driving. A familiar metal arm crashed through the window and grabbed Sitwell. The man screamed in fright as he was thrown out of the car and into traffic, where he undoubtedly got run over and killed.

Natasha, Roxas, and Vanitas watched as they saw the leg of the Winter Soldier on the side of the car. He pulled a sidearm off of the holster on his leg and climbed up onto the roof. Natasha jumped up into the front seat onto Steve's lap as the man fired into the car through the roof, Vanitas fighting off the urge to make a dirty joke. Roxas dodged while Vanitas fired at the roof in retaliation.

The group in the car continued to dodge the bullets from the assassin before Steve got an idea. He moved the car into park, and the momentum threw the Winter Soldier off and onto the road. The assassin slid across the road before bracing himself with his metal arm into a stop. He stood up straight, showing his long hair and mask over his face as he faced the car, other cars in the road just going around him like this happened everyday.

"Brace your ears!" Vanitas announced, holding up his Desert Eagle to the front window. It was only then that he saw that the chamber was still back, signifying the gun was empty. "Oh, shit."

Natasha was just pulling her own Glock out to aim at the Soldier, but then a big truck from SHIELD rammed into their car from behind. They were forced forwards, and the Winter Soldier jumped up onto their car, smashing into it and breaking the windows.

Sam tried bracing them with the brake, while Natasha tried grabbing her Glock on the ground. Sam then tried getting them to move to the side as Vanitas reached desperately into one of his pockets or pouches for a new clip for his gun. Unfortunately, the Winter Soldier reached in through the front windshield and ripped the steering wheel off of the dashboard, and out of Sam's hands.

"Shit!" Sam screamed in fear.

Natasha had grabbed her Glock and started firing up at the roof again, scaring the Winter Solder onto the front of the truck behind them. Sam tried to. get control of the car without a steering wheel, while Roxas summoned his Keyblade and tried blasting spells out the back windshield like Fira or Blizzara in defense. But, the way the car was shaking around only succeeded in making the blasts explode against the car, not doing a lot of damage.

The truck behind them then rammed into them hard, making them go semi sideways as they went down the road. Thinking quickly, Steve pulled out his shield and braced it against the door.

"Hang on!" he announced, as Natasha did exactly that and he grabbed Sam with his opposite hand.

As the car started turning while flying in the air, Steve slammed the shield into the door, and it broke off its hinges, taking the three of them out. Vanitas and Roxas cried out in fright before Vanitas grabbed his friend by the shoulder. The two suddenly disappeared from inside of the car and landed roughly on the ground next to their friends.

The car flipped as it went down the road in front of them, crashing into the ground as it was flown forwards roughly. The truck with the Winter Soldier on the hood went past them down the road next to them, before they slid to a stop on the shield. Sam ended up detaching from them and rolling on the ground towards a nearby stopped minivan.

Roxas and Vanitas quickly got up and ran down the road towards their friends, who stood up to face the enemy. A man with a buzz cut wearing all black got out of the back seat of the car and handed the Winter Soldier a grenade launcher. He pointed the launcher at Steve, who pushed Natasha out of the way and held up his shield. The assassin fired, and the blast hit the shield, knocking Steve off the top of the bridge and into a bus on the lower lever, which was then knocked onto its side by a truck.

"Steve!" Roxas called out in concern as soldiers climbed out of the truck and started firing at them.

Vanitas pulled his friend away and ran with Sam and Natasha behind cars to try to dodge the gunfire. Sam and Roxas went behind a car while Natasha and Vanitas tried firing back, Natasha with her Glock and Vanitas with a Mac-10 machine gun. Vanitas managed to take out one of the five soldiers with rifles before he and Natasha had to jump onto the opposite highway as the Winter Soldier fired a grenade at them.

Heartless similarly dressed to SHIELD workers then appeared behind them as they dodged around cars to block the soldier's gunfire. Vanitas fired at the Heartless as they ran beside a car. The Winter Soldier then fired another grenade at the car, causing them both to go over the side of the bridge as the car followed them. Vanitas just prepared himself to roll against the ground to fight through the upcoming pain, while Natasha used a wire in her wrist to grapple onto the bridge and slow her descent to the ground below the bridge.

They both landed, Vanitas roughly and Natasha smoothly, while the car crashed in an explosion on the ground behind them. The two of them ran underneath the bridge towards Steve, as more Heartless appeared behind them as they ran. Up on the bridge, the Winter Soldier switched out his grenade launcher with the fallen soldier's M4 rifle with an attached, more portable grenade launcher. He walked to the edge of the bridge, and waited for the two of them to walk out.

However, they saw his shadow on the ground, and Natasha stayed right below his point of view and fired up at him, hitting one of the goggles he wore. Vanitas directed his gunfire in his machine gun at the approaching Heartless before Natasha pulled out an extra Glock to help fire at them.

The Winter Soldier then reappeared over the edge of the bridge and fired directly at them below, sans his goggles, so they got out of the way, Vanitas continuing to fire at the Heartless, while Natasha fired her handguns at the soldier above them. They moved behind the downed truck, then used the cars lined down the road in defense as the Winter Soldier and other men with rifles fired at them.

" _I have those two_ ," the Winter Soldier informed the other men in Russian. " _Find the others._ "

The Winter Soldier jumped off of the bridge and landed on a car, shattering it. He then calmly walked off the car and down the road, after his current targets.

Three of the living men then attached harnesses to cars on the bridge before using them to rappel down onto the ground below. Two landed directly on the road with rifles, while the third landed on a car with a mini-gun. He fired the misnamed gun at the bus starting from left and going down the side to draw out Steve. It worked, and he jumped out of the side. He then grabbed his shield and held it up in defense against the gunfire.

The remaining soldier on the bridge then attached his harness onto another car and prepared to rappel down. Just as he was about to, though, Sam sneaked up from behind him and kicked him in the leg. He used his own knife to slash the rifle strap off of the man's shoulder, then kicked him in the chest, knocking him over the bridge. He picked up the rifle and prepared to use it.

"How many people in this world are badasses?" Roxas asked Sam.

"A lot of us," Sam answered, cocking the rifle.

They watched as Steve rushed forwards with his shield raised in defense against the gunfire, making one man run behind a car in defense, while another was hit Sam on the bridge with his own assault rifle. Roxas helped his friend by launching up Thundara, electrocuting the man with the mini-gun, stunning him and giving Steve the opportunity he needed to lunge at the man and slam him hard against the car, knocking him out. Steve leaned against the car to look up and see Sam and Roxas on the bridge.

"Go, I got this!" Sam announced, returning fire at the man behind the car who had tried shooting at him. "Roxas, you go with him! That Winter Soldier did not look pleasant!"

Sam and the soldier continued to fire at each other, providing the distraction needed for Steve to run down the road and Roxas to Glide through the air after their friends to help.

The Winter Soldier, was, meanwhile still walking calmly down the road after his targets. He shot a police car with the grenade launcher on his rifle, in a pretty petty manner. He simply reloaded the launcher as he walked through the streets of stopped cars and people running around in fear after Natasha and Vanitas.

The Winter Soldier's attention was then drawn to a car next to the sidewalk across the road from him. He could hear radio feedback and the sound of Natasha's voice. The Winter Soldier crouched down next to the minivan next to him and grabbed a ball shaped tiny explosive from his utility belt. He rolled the ball under the minivan and the other car to what he thought was Natasha. However, it was just a playback on her phone of herself giving distress signals to someone.

The ball exploded, which blew up the entire car in a big explosion, and he stood up straight with his rifle raised. Natasha then jumped up from the car behind him and kicked the rifle out of his hands. She climbed up onto his shoulders and pulled out a wire she tried using to keep the assassin's right hand restrained while also trying to force him unconscious. The Winter Soldier then rushed back into the car and grabbed her with his free hand, before throwing her over minivan and into the car that was covered in burn marks.

Vanitas then rushed in from behind the man on the left and tried swinging his machete at the assassin. The man ducked, then elbowed Vanitas in the gut with his metal arm. He then reached back and grabbed Vanitas by the back of his neck, like he was scuffing an angry kitten. The Winter Soldier threw Vanitas forwards, and he rolled on the ground hard forwards. He landed on his back and looked up to see many Heartless surrounding him, cutting him off from Natasha.

Natasha, meanwhile, got up on one knee in preparation as the Winter Soldier picked his rifle back up. She threw a small, circular device onto the man's metal arm, which caused an electric surge which immobilized it. Natasha ran down the road as the Winter Soldier dropped his rifle.

Vanitas, meanwhile, was slashing through the SHIELD looking Heartless as quickly as he could to try to be able to help, but there were still a lot around him. He made fire appear in his hand and started waving it in defense to keep them back. The situation was starting to make him a little frantic when...

"Gather!" Roxas announced as he landed on the ground nearby.

The Heartless were picked up with the same energy as usual. Roxas followed it up with, "Thunder!"

The strike of lightning blasted the Heartless in the air, taking out many of them. Vanitas finished off the last two with a single swipe with his machete.

"Thanks," Vanitas breathed out.

"You looked like you needed it," Roxas commented, shrugging his shoulders.

The sound of metal clanging garnered their attentions. They looked up to see that the Winter Soldier had pulled the electric gear off of his metal arm and was facing them, murder in his eyes.

"Well, he might not be the dark presence," Roxas sighed out, standing in his battle stance. "But he _is_ causing trouble."

"And it's our job to fight people causing trouble," Vanitas agreed, standing ready with his machete.

Vanitas ran forwards and swung his machete at the taller, long haired man. The assassin ducked once again, then grabbed Vanitas' machete holding arm. Vanitas then kicked the man in the stomach as hard as he could, which didn't have a lot of effect. So, Roxas fired Fira again, which caused a blast actually that forced the assassin back a bit.

Roxas then rushed forwards and started a combo attack, which caused a bit of damage to the soldier, before he punched Roxas in the face, forcing him back a bit. Vanitas raised his machete once again, then the soldier grabbed the blade with his metal hand. He threw Vanitas forwards and Roxas ducked as his friend flew over him.

Roxas then raised his Keyblade up and threw it at the Winter Soldier in Strike Raid. The assassin swatted the Keyblade with his metal arm, causing it to fly through Roxas instead in an attack. Vanitas then caught it and rushed forwards as his friend clutched his chest in pain. Vanitas shot fire out of the Keyblade, which blasted the man, before he ran in to attack with his own combo. The assassin then suddenly grabbed Vanitas by the shoulder with his metal arm, then threw him forwards, into Roxas this time.

The two friends got up and looked forwards at the soldier, who was picking up his rifle.

"Fuck this!" Vanitas announced, handing the Keyblade back to Roxas.

They ran as fast as they could down the road that Natasha had ran down earlier, dodging the rifle fire from the enhanced soldier.

Meanwhile, down that same road, Natasha was trying to corral the scared people out of the way, while running down the road herself.

"Get out of the way!" she yelled. "Stay out of the way!"

A gunshot then fired, shattering the window of the car next to her and hit her in the left shoulder. She breathed in and out as she dropped next to the car, gripping her shoulder. Natasha looked around, trying to see if she could spot the Winter Soldier, to no avail. The assassin then jumped up onto the car behind her on her left. She looked up in surprise, and that's when Steve ran out in one direction, and Roxas and Vanitas in another.

Steve ran up to the assassin and held up his shield just as the man punched at him. The Winter Soldier's fist hitting the shield made the same gong like noice that Thor's hammer did, so Steve held it tighter as it vibrated a bit in his arm. Roxas ran up to the man on the car with his Keyblade raised in an attack, but then the assassin kicked him in the face, knocking him to the ground. The Winter Soldier then pushed aside Steve's shield and kicked him in the chest, causing both men to fall back, Steve on the ground, and the Winter Soldier further onto the car.

The Winter Soldier then raised his rifle and fired at both Steve and Vanitas. Steve quickly rolled up onto a knee and raised his shield in defense, and Vanitas surrounded himself in fire, which caught the bullets. Giving up on the rifle, the Winter Soldier dropped it onto the car and rolled off. Steve ran forwards around the car as the assassin fired at him with the machine gun he took off of his back harness.

Once that ran empty, Steve jumped over the car and kicked the gun out of the assassin's hand. Vanitas then jumped in as the Winter Soldier pulled out his sidearm and fired directly at Steve's shield. Vanitas grabbed the handgun and pointed it upwards before pressing it against the assassin's hand, forcing him to let go before punching him in the face.

Steve then tried jabbing his shield at the Winter Soldier, but he caught it with his metal hand. The two punched at each other before the assassin gripped the shield with both hands and forced Steve into a backflip. Steve landed on his feet, but then the Winter Soldier pulled the shield out of his hands. Roxas tried rushing in with his Keyblade, but the assassin hit him in the face with the shield, then swatted him away with it, causing the blonde to go flying back next to Natasha.

Steve and the Winter Soldier then tried battling each other, but it wasn't easy when the assassin had Steve's shield. Steve rolled back, then Vanitas was grabbed and thrown next to him. They both stood and faced the assassin in front of them, holding up Steve's shield in preparation.

They ran forwards, dodging it as the Winter Soldier threw the shield, and it embedded itself into the back doors of a van. The assassin then pulled a knife out of one of the sheaths on his leg, and he and Steve grappled each other, directing their attacks away from each other. Vanitas wanted to try to help, but with the way the two were in such combat, he didn't know how. And once Roxas ran forwards next to him, he didn't, either.

Steve then jumped up in a spin and kicked the Winter Soldier into a van, causing him to drop his knife. He then ran forwards again and kneed the assassin, causing him to crash into the passenger side van door. He tried punching, but the assassin blocked that and tried grabbing at Steve's side. Steve then grabbed him by the arm and threw him over his shoulder onto the ground. The Winter Soldier then stood up with Steve's hand still on him, but then grabbed Steve's neck with his metal arm.

"Here's where we jump it!" Vanitas announced.

He and Roxas ran forwards and the Winter Soldier turned to face them while still choking Steve. Vanitas raised his fist to punch the assassin, but he blocked it by punching Vanitas' fist with his own, causing Vanitas to grow surprised a bit. Roxas then ran forwards and did the only fighting move Vanitas taught him: he kicked the man in the groin. In response, Roxas cried out in pain and fell to the ground, clutching his foot. The Winter Soldier didn't even look fazed.

"Dude, your poor wife!" Vanitas quipped before the assassin grabbed him by the neck.

He threw Vanitas forwards, who exclaimed as he smashed through a car windshield. While he couldn't feel it, he was pretty sure some very sharp pieces of glass had embedded themselves into some vital parts of his body.

The Winter Soldier disregarded the still in pain Roxas as he threw Steve over the top of the car, onto the ground. He then lunged over the car and punched at the ground as Steve rolled out of the way. The metal fist instead embedded itself into the ground. Steve stood up, and the Winter Soldier followed suit.

The two then started grappling each others attacks once again before Steve got knocked back into the side of the van that had his shield in it. The Winter Soldier pulled out another knife and Steve caught the assassin's arms as he tried stabbing him. The mechanics in the arm caused the assassin to drive it further, but Steve had already moved his head out of the way and the knife went into the side of the van instead. The two went down the side of the van still grappled together as the assassin tried getting the blade to harm Steve.

Steve then ducked under the blade slash and went behind the Winter Soldier. He grabbed the assassin around the waist, and picked up, slamming them both onto the ground. Steve then stood up and grabbed his shield out of the van while the assassin stood up.

Roxas then stood back up and re-summoned his Keyblade. The two heroes tried swinging their weapons at the Winter Soldier as he also tried swinging his knife at them. The assassin tried stabbing at Steve, but he caught the man's arm with his shield. So, he dropped the knife and caught it in his metal hand, then punched Steve in the face with his normal hand. He then slashed at Roxas's Keyblade with his knife, and sparks flew as the two blades intercepted.

The Winter Soldier then kicked at Steve, which was deflected with the shield. He tried slashing his knife at Steve, but missed, and when he tried elbowing the man with his metal arm, Steve caught it and forced his shield against the joints, grunting as he kept it in place. Roxas then kicked the man in the leg with his Keyblade and swung his Keyblade up, hitting him in the face, causing him to look up. Steve then quickly whirled around and grabbed the man by the mask on his face. He pulled with all his enhanced strength and threw the assassin over his head. The Winter Soldier landed on the ground, quickly getting up with his back facing them. His mask had fallen off, and was now on the ground between the heroes and the assassin.

Roxas and Steve breathed in and out as the Winter Soldier turned to face them. But what they were not expecting was that they recognized him. He might have had longer hair, but Roxas recognized that face from when they were at the museum the other day, and Steve recognized him, because they had known each other since childhood. Both Steve and Roxas stood up straighter and looked at the James Buchanan Barnes in disbelief.

"Bucky?" Steve asked in confusion.

"Who the hell is Bucky?" Bucky asked in equal confusion.

Bucky raised a handgun, but before he could fire, Sam flew in from seemingly nowhere and kicked him in the head, causing him to roll forwards on the ground. Once he stopped rolling, Bucky stood up next to a red pickup truck, and looked at Steve in confusion. Roxas could see the recognition in the man's eyes as he looked at Steve, but Bucky shook it off and raised his handgun again.

The sound of something firing quickly made Roxas and Steve duck down. Natasha had gotten up and picked up the fallen rifle, firing the reloaded grenade launcher on it towards Bucky, blowing up the pickup. The two looked back to see the injured forms of Natasha and Vanitas leaning against each other against a big truck. They looked back towards the destroyed pickup to see Bucky nowhere in sight.

"What the hell?" Roxas muttered as they heard the sounds of sirens getting closer.

Big, black trucks and people on motorcycles drove down the road towards where the five were and stopped. STRIKE agents carrying guns came out and held all five of them at gunpoint as they raised their hands in surrender.

"Drop the shield, Cap!" Brock Rumlow ordered, handgun pointed at Steve and Roxas. "Same with the Keyblade, Roxas! Get on your knees!"

Steve put down his shield, Roxas dismissed his Keyblade, Natasha set down the assault rifle she had, and Vanitas dropped the remaining of the glass shards he pulled out of his body. They kept their hands raised in surrender. Rumlow went around Steve and stood behind him.

"Get on your knees!" he repeated himself, kicking Steve in his shin. "Now!"

Steve and Roxas got on their knees as Rumlow and other agents got closer, keeping their rifles pointed at the two while others did the same to Vanitas, Natasha, and Sam. They lowered their arms once they realized they didn't need them up anymore. Rumlow them looked up at the sounds of a helicopter flying, and stopped at the sight of a news helicopter above them.

"Put the guns down," Rumlow instructed the two with their rifles pointed directly at Steve and Roxas's heads. "Not here. Not here!"

Steve and Roxas continued letting Rumlow and another agent handle their wrists, while Sam, Natasha, and Vanitas were led away at gunpoint. Despite everything happening around them, Steve was still in shock at the revelation. Roxas nodded at his friend slightly, letting him know he was there for him, as the STRIKE team started leading them to an unknown fate.

And on a nearby rooftop, Pete laughed wildly at the sight of the five being forced into a STRIKE armored car. Now that they were out of the way, things could go according to plan. Especially the part involving Pierce...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *1 Something I love is that there's a blooper of Anthony Mackie accidentally saying "cock" instead of "cork," and he just keeps going like nothing happened while everyone else bursts out laughing
> 
> Wow. Only about 42 minutes left in this movie. Really, I've been using my account on Disney+ to watch these lately. Did it in Thor, and I've been using it here. We're about an hour and 24 minutes so far, and only have 42 minutes left of story until the end credits. Vanitas will get visions of the after credits scenes, though, so those won't be ignored


	9. Regrouping

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team is saved by Maria Hill, and reunite with someone they thought dead

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I edited the end of chapter 2 to include a picture of the character I mentioned, Julian, and an explanation of the jacket so you have a better understanding of what Vanitas was wearing throughout this. I know the last two Return of the Living Dead films are hated by... everybody... but I just can't help but like them, partly because of Julian, along with two of his other friends in that picture, Becky and Cody. I know that's an unpopular opinion, but it's mine

The five of them were forced into the nearest STRIKE van, and metal clamps bound their hands together, preventing any forms of escape. Roxas couldn't even open a dark corridor because he couldn't hold up his hand. They sat in the back of the truck with two soldiers wearing helmets, disguising their identities, and Steve and Roxas were informing the others about their revelation that the Winter Soldier was Bucky.

"It was him," Steve blankly informed them, looking down at the ground. "He looked right at me like he didn't even know me."

"How's that even possible?" Sam asked. "It was, like, 70 years ago."

"Zola," Steve confirmed. "Bucky's whole unit was captured in '43. Zola experimented on him. Whatever it did helped Bucky survive the fall."

Vanitas flinched as he had a slight vision. It seemed that the pain was starting to get more bearable because he saw a lot more in that few seconds, and it only felt like someone had impaled a _single_ flaming machete through his head.

"They found him at the bottom of the cliff," Vanitas confirmed, just as blankly as Steve. "They used some of the super soldier serum they had managed to steal, brainwashed him, and trained him in their ways. Then, following Zola's instructions, they froze him and brought him out whenever they needed him. That's how they knew how well to bring you out of the ice, Steve. They already had plenty of experience with Bucky. The poor bastard."

"None of that's your fault, Steve," Natasha woozily assured him when she saw the guilt in the man's eyes.

Steve looked down, his face still blank.

"Even when I had nothing, I had Bucky," he informed them.

"I know the feeling," Roxas and Vanitas assured him at the same time.

Natasha leaned her head back against the wall, so Sam looked at her and her shoulder, which was still bleeding from the bullet wound.

"We need to get a doctor here," he told the soldiers in the car with them, looking from them to Natasha's shoulder. "If we don't put pressure on that wound, she's gonna bleed out right here in the truck.

The soldier held up an electric rod up to Sam and showed its tricks for a second, silencing the man. The group was then surprised as the soldier twirled the rod around and used it to electrocute the soldier next to them, then kick them in the head. The soldier that was kicked fell to the floor unconscious, while the group watched as the first soldier took off the helmet, revealing her to be Maria Hill.

"Ah," Maria breathed out. "That thing was squeezing my brain."

She breathed out and brushed the hair out of her face, before looking at Sam in confusion.

"Who is this guy?" she asked.

Maria helped them get out of their clamps, then used a device to burn through the bottom of the van, giving them an escape route. She had even grabbed Vanitas's Vortex Manipulator. Vanitas quickly strapped the device back around his wrist as they climbed out through the hole in the van floor.

Maria then led them to a van she had stocked nearby, and helped the five of them hide in the back. She drove them to a new location while they took care of Natasha's bullet wound as best they could. They agreed it would be a bad idea to use the Keyblade since it still drew attention of Heartless, and they didn't need any more surprises. And both Roxas and Vanitas didn't have any Potions on them, so they had to do it the old fashioned way.

After a while, the van stopped and Maria opened the door, gesturing for them to follow her on foot. The five of them climbed out of the van and followed her towards what appeared to be a large above ground bunker... or something. Maria opened the door for them, and led them down a hallway, and a man in a suit started running towards them.

"GSW," Maria called out to the man as Steve and Vanitas kept an arm wrapped around Natasha to help her around since she was still pretty wounded. "She's lost at least a pint."

"Maybe two," Sam added.

"Let me take her," the man they guessed was a doctor instructed as he got closer to them.

"She'll want to see him first," Maria informed him.

Natasha shared a confused look with the two men helping her along as Maria continued to lead them through the hallways. They reached a basement like area with a lot of pillars in the room reaching up to the ceiling. Maria pushed aside a slightly see through curtain, causing a great deal of shock amongst the group. Steve, Roxas, Vanitas, and Natasha's jaws all dropped at the sight of an alive Nick Fury sitting in a bed, hooked up to a heart monitor machine. Fury opened his one eye and sat up a bit straighter at the sight of them.

"About damn time," Fury commented.

"What the hell?" Roxas asked the question on their minds. At least, the less vulgar one on Vanitas' mind.

Fury got to explaining it all to them as the doctor with them applied pressure to Natasha's shoulder wound with both hands.

"Lacerated spinal column, cracked sternum, shattered collarbone, perforated liver..." Fury listed off all the wounds he had. "...and one hell of a headache."

"Don't forget your collapsed lung," the doctor added.

"Let's not forget that," Fury agreed. "Otherwise, I'm good."

"They cut you open," Natasha remarked. "Your heart stopped."

"And unless you lost your life force, like me, I don't think you could survive without your heart beating," Vanitas commented.

"Tetrodotoxin B," Fury informed them. "Slows the pulse to one beat minute. Banner developed it for stress. Didn't work so great for him, so we found a use for it."

"Pretend You're Dead Juice," Vanitas assessed. "Not a bad idea."

"Why all the secrecy?" Steve asked. "Why not just tell us?"

"Any attempt on the Director's life had to look successful," Maria informed them.

"Can't kill you if you're already dead," Fury clarified. "Besides... I wasn't sure who to trust."

Natasha kept quiet at that, understanding his logic.

"Yet, we were friends in the 90's," Vanitas remarked. "I know you're gonna say, 'try not to take it personally,' but I'm still gonna."

"You still have no memory of that time," Fury defended. "You're a lot different from how you were... and I'm not just talking about your voice being deeper. With how much everything changed with you, I wasn't sure where you stood."

"V, you gotta admit-" Roxas started to say.

"I know he has a point," Vanitas informed him, annoyed. "Doesn't mean I have to like it."

The six of them gathered around a table with computers on it. Fury, Maria, and Natasha sat in chairs while Sam, Steve, and Roxas stood. As they explained the problem with Pierce, HYDRA, and the truth about Project Insight, Vanitas had a vision about the Winter Sol... Sorry, Bucky. He wasn't used to it yet. Anyway, he saw Bucky receiving repairs on his arm before the man had his own flashbacks to when Zola found him, gave him the arm, and froze him. He lashed out, so Pierce showed up with Rumlow and encouraged him, as Bucky insisted he knew the man on the bridge, Steve. Pierce just had the scientists "wipe him and prep him." Vanitas winced as he gout out, and not just because it hurt.

"What'd you see?" Steve asked.

They had finished explaining, and Fury was looking over an old picture while the others looked at Vanitas, expectantly.

"You're not gonna like it," Vanitas informed him.

"I can take it," Steve remarked.

"You say that now..." Vanitas commented before sighing out. "Bucky recognized you on the bridge. He looked very sad about it as he told that part to those pricks, but Pierce just had them push those memories further back into his head before preparing him for tomorrow. And, from the looks of it... and his subsequent screams... it must have really hurt. Poor bastard."

Steve didn't even bother to try to hide his sorrow at the news that his oldest friend was being tortured like that.

"This man declined the Nobel Peace Prize," Fury announced, still looking at an old picture of Pierce. "He said peace wasn't an achievement, it was a responsibility." He set down the picture. "See, it's stuff like this that gives me trust issues."

"Oh, so it's not that you're the lead spy in of a large, covert spy organization?" Roxas sarcastically asked.

"Look at you, learning sarcasm," Vanitas proudly praised.

"We have to stop the launch," Natasha announced.

"I don't think the Council's accepting my calls anymore," Fury remarked.

He opened up a briefcase to show off six... what looked like data chips. Three were much bigger than the others.

"What's that?" Sam asked.

"Once the helicarriers reach 3,000 feet, they'll triangulate with Insight satellites, becoming fully weaponized," Maria explained, turning her laptop to show them visual representations of the helicarriers on the screen.

"We need to breach those carriers and replace their targeting blades with our own," Fury explained, as the screen showed a zoom in of the specific area in the lowest parts of the carriers, and where exactly the targeting blades, the three larger chips, would go.

"One or two won't cut it," Maria informed them. "We need to link all three carriers for this to work, because if even one of those ships remains operational... a whole lot of people are gonna die and become Heartless."

"Which leads to another problem," Vanitas informed them. "Even if we retarget the blasters, they're still infused with darkness. No matter who gets shot with the guns, they'll still turn into Heartless."

"Which is why we have these other three chips," Fury informed him, gesturing to the smaller ones that were completely white. "You left one of your spellbooks back at Avenger Tower."

"Stark provided the book to us readily," Maria explained. "These chips are designed to go right next to the targeting blades. They send a surge of light throughout the helicarriers, strong enough to surpress the darkness inside. The chips go in, and the guns just become plain, old guns."

"No one else becomes a Heartless today," Fury clarified for Vanitas's benefit. "Not if we can help it."

Vanitas nodded his head at that.

"We do this, order is kept, and the worlds are safe," Roxas assessed. He nodded his head. "I'm down with that."

"We have to assume everyone aboard those carriers is HYDRA," Fury announced. "We have to get past them, insert these server blades and chips. And maybe, just maybe we can salvage what's left..."

"We're not salvaging anything," Steve announced, interrupting the man. "We're not just taking down the carriers, Nick. We're taking down SHIELD."

"SHIELD had nothing to do with this," Fury defended.

"SHIELD had everything to do with this," Vanitas remarked. "HYDRA grew in the organization right under our noses. They lied to us all that tried to do the right thing, and when we sought the truth, they eliminated us. Nick, I'm sorry, I really am... But I don't see any other way out of this."

"Exactly," Steve agreed. "You gave us this mission. This is how it ends. SHIELD's been compromised. You said so yourself. V's right, nobody even noticed HYDRA."

"Why do you think we're meeting in this cave?" Fury informed them. "I noticed."

"Another thing V's right about," Steve remarked. "How many people paid the price before you did?"

Fury stayed silent and looked down.

"Look, I didn't know about Barnes," he informed Steve.

"Even if you had, would you have told me?" Steve asked. "Or would you have compartmentalized that, too?"

"Boom," Roxas commented, holding out his hand and opening it.

"Wrong moment," Vanitas informed his friend.

"Sorry," Roxas said, embarrassed.

"SHIELD, HYDRA, it all goes," Steve told Fury.

"He's right," Maria agreed.

Fury looked at her, then at Vanitas.

"I'm sorry," Vanitas told him. "I really am. I still don't remember the 90's, but I'm sure I did as much as I could to help back then, and had a lot of fun with you. But, now... If there was another way, I would do it. But, there isn't, Nick. This is all we can do, so it's what we're gonna do."

Fury looked from Vanitas to Natasha, who leaned back in the chair, declaring with just her eyes that she agreed. He then looked up to Sam and Roxas.

"Don't look at us," Roxas told him.

"We do what they do, just slower," Sam admitted, as he and Roxas shrugged their shoulders. He and Roxas then looked at each other, laughed simultaneously, then bumped their fists.

"What just happened?" Vanitas whispered to Steve.

"I don't know," Steve whispered back as they looked from Sam and Roxas back to Fury, who was now looking down.

"Well..." Fury said in thought, looking to the side. He locked eyes with Maria before leaning back in the chair and looking up at Steve. "It looks like you're giving the orders now, Captain."

They went over the plan quickly before moving to put everything into place. Natasha and Vanitas sat in a chair looking over the schematics on one of the helicarriers again while Fury weakly walked over to them. He groaned out as he leaned against a chair.

"Didn't think you could make it up the stairs," Natasha commented.

"Seemed a little beat up," Vanitas added as they kept their eyes on the computer.

"*sigh* It wasn't pretty," Fury admitted. He chuckled then sighed out. "Here you go."

He handed a black box labelled "Photostatic Veil" to Natasha, for her part of the plan. Natasha took the box and observed it.

"Hill just calibrated it," Fury informed her.

"Thanks," Natasha said, placing the box on the ground and giving a smile to Fury, which Vanitas was sure even Roxas could tell was fake.

Natasha stood up, and she and Vanitas looked at Fury intently.

"We thought you were dead, Nick," she told him.

"A little heads up after the fact would have been nice," Vanitas remarked.

"I had to keep the circle small," Fury informed them, avoiding eye contact. He then looked up at Natasha. "You would have done the same thing."

"I know," Natasha admitted. She looked to the side. "That's a problem."

She walked past Fury out of the room, not even saying a word. Vanitas watched her leave before looking at Fury, who was looking down.

"Is she your adopted daughter?" Vanitas asked him, eyebrows furrowed.

Fury looked up at him, only a little surprised by his question.

"I understand why you would think that," he admitted. "It honestly wouldn't be the first time someone asked me that."

" _That's_ a yes," Vanitas joked.

Fury looked at Vanitas accusingly as he laughed and walked out of the room. After a few seconds, Fury chuckled, himself.

"Twenty years and he still makes me laugh," he muttered to himself.

Vanitas met up with Roxas and Sam, and they walked out onto the bridge that Steve was standing on, staring out at the trees far in front of him. He saw that Steve was having his own flashback to a time after his mother's funeral, and Bucky was offering him a place to live. Steve insisted he could get by on his own, and Bucky informed him he didn't have to. Bucky told him that "he was with him to the end of the line." Their friendship reminded him of both himself and his old friend, Ventus, and Sora and Riku before all this started with Maleficent.

"He's gonna be there, you know," Sam announced as the three of them walked up to Steve.

"I know," Steve admitted.

"You know, I just realized," Vanitas announced with a smile to try to lighten the mood. "Bucky attacked the car, and Nat jumped into your lap. He's trying to improve your dating life even while brainwashed! *mutters loudly* Man, I wish I had a friend like that..."

Steve and Sam did smirk at that, meaning Vanitas succeeded, but their expressions became serious quickly again.

"Look, whoever he used to be and the guy he is now, I don't think he's the kind you save," Sam informed him. "He's the kind you stop."

"I don't know if I can do that," Steve admitted.

"You might not have to," Vanitas informed them. "Sometimes, it can be both."

Sam and Steve both looked confused at that.

"Our missing friend?" Vanitas asked, knowing Steve would understand who he was talking about. "We fought his friend that had been drawn to the darkness. We stopped him, but also sort of saved him. He's all right now, and is trying to repay the favor."

 _Even though he's going too far to try to do it_ , Vanitas thought, looking at Roxas in worry, which the blonde missed. Now wasn't the time to worry about his friend, they had an army to stop from forming.

"Good philosophy," Sam commented, looking at Steve again. "Here's hoping he gives you that choice. They wiped his memory again, so he doesn't know you."

"He will," Steve promised. He looked from Sam to the trees again before turning and walking down the road of the bridge to the gate. "Gear up. It's time."

Sam sighed out before looking at Steve.

"You gonna wear that?" he asked as the man continued walking down the road.

"No," Steve announced, looking back at him as he continued walking down the road. "If you're gonna fight a war, you got to wear a uniform."

"Exactly," Vanitas announced, taking out his sling. He reached inside and took out Roxas's Organization coat, which he handed to the blonde with the sling. "Put the clothes back in there when you're done. I'll be right back."

"Where are you going?" Roxas asked.

"Since the SHIELD outfit was destroyed, I had to make other arrangements," Vanitas announced, before using his Vortex Manipulator to teleport to the textile shop that Phil had instructed him to on Olympus.

The ginger haired, purple robed owner of the shop was certainly surprised.

"Whoa!" Theodin exclaimed in shock. "Oh, Vanitas, it's just you."

"Theodin," Vanitas greeted. "Is it ready?"

Theodin nodded his head and picked up a small box which he handed to Vanitas. Vanitas opened the box and saw the outfit he requested. Black robes, black gloves, a black bandana, brown straps, a small brown pouch perfect for ammo, and a brown squared crest with his signature X mark on it.

"And the spells I told you to cast on it?" Vanitas asked.

"Fireproof and stab proof," Theodin confirmed with a nod of the head. "Especially thanks to that book you provided me. Oh..."

Theodin reached into his chest robe and pulled out the small book which he put into the box with the clothes.

"Thank you, Theodin," Vanitas said. He pulled out a pouch of Munny and handed it to the man. "There's an extra 150 in there for your troubles."

"Oh, it's no trouble at all," Theodin assured him, as Vanitas fit the box under the crook of one arm and programmed his Vortex Manipulator with the other arm. "Might I ask, what did you need these for?"

"Saving the world," Vanitas answered, pressing the button.

Theodin furrowed his eyebrows in confusion as Vanitas disappeared in a flash of light.

"Well, he sure was an interesting customer..."

* * *

In the Smithsonian museum back in DC, an elderly security guard walked through the exhibits, turning on the lights to prepare for the day. Nearing the Captain America exhibit, he jumped at the sight of it.

"Oh, man," Stan Lee sighed out in despair. "I am so fired."

The statue for Captain America in the lead was disposed of its outfit, leaving only a triangular shield to cover up the waist area.

The outfit was currently being worn by Steve, who was being led with Roxas, Sam, and Vanitas by Maria Hill through the green forest across the lake from the Triskelion. Roxas was in his Organization coat again (which, he had to admit, felt weird after wearing normal clothes for the last few days), Maria was wearing the standard SHIELD jumpsuit, like what Vanitas had before it got destroyed, and Sam wore his Falcon wings retracted on his back. He didn't have his goggles on since he didn't need them, yet, but he would put them on when the time came.

Vanitas had appeared with them not too long ago, decked out in his new battle suit. The black robes along his chest were made of the same fabric of the black pants he wore. A brown piece of different fabric served as a belt, which pointed down on either of his legs as the fabric was tied in front of his waist. There were brown pads on each of his knees for just in case situations. Brown straps led to the square shaped crest with his insignia on the right of his chest, which led to more straps on his back, which his sling easily attached to. Once of the straps was around the bottom of his waist, with the pouch to carry ammo on the right side of his body. The bandana was tied around his neck, covering his mouth and nose. His usual sneakers were on his feet. Those were just something he could never replace.

The five of them stood, mentally preparing themselves a bit, before they continued their trek through the woods and to the water. Their first course of action was to get to a room where they could send a message...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That little moment between Sam and Roxas was them immediately becoming friends. Remember, Roxas is still Sora's Nobody, so when he fights for his life with someone, of course they're gonna become fast friends.
> 
> And oh, my god, Steve and Bucky have the kind of friendship that BELONGS in Kindgom Hearts. My heart actually clenched the first time I watched the final fight between them.
> 
> And that joke Vanitas does about Bucky at the end, I found in an informative Instagram post I can't find anymore.
> 
> Hey, gotta have the Stan Lee cameo. Rest In Peace, big guy


	10. "You Need To Keep Both Eyes Open"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team makes their move

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't really learn the names of the members for the Council, so I had to go with the basest of descriptions for most of them until the subtitles announced who they were.

Practically the entire Triskelion was bustling with activity in preparation of the launch of Project Insight. People were moving all around the giant hanger taking care of a few last minute arrangements with the helicarriers, while people prepared in the tech rooms to make sure the guidance systems were online.

"And how was your flight?" Pierce asked the newly arrived members of the Council.

"Lovely," Hawley, the female member answered as they walked down the large entrance room. "The ride from the airport, less so."

"Sadly, SHIELD can't control everything," Pierce informed them.

"Including Captain America and Vanitas Jordan," Rockwell, the older member of the council quipped.

Pierce kept quiet at that as a security guard walked over and handed a briefcase to him.

"This facility is biometrically controlled," Pierce told the council members. He started holding out the briefcase to the members, and they took the elaborate lapels and attached them to their suit jackets. "And these will give you unrestricted access.

In a tech room connected to the Triskelion, the techs were chatting about the latest developments until high pitched feedback erupted through their earpieces. All of the techs sitting at the table removed their earpieces and looked down at them.

"Must be the dish," the tech in the center remarked.

"I'll check it out," Moore, the tech on his right, offered.

Moore walked over to the door on the side and opened it with his keycard. What he was not expecting to see was Sam, Roxas, Captain America, Vanitas, and Maria on the other side. Sam, Vanitas, and Maria pointed their guns at the man, making the threat obvious.

"Excuse us," Steve simply said.

"We wouldn't want you to get hurt," Roxas added.

They moved to the PA system while Pierce shared glasses of champagne with the board members in the conference room at the highest level of the Triskelion. They quickly set the device on, and Steve went directly to the microphone after removing his mask. Vanitas and Roxas didn't exactly understand why he did that part, but they shrugged it off.

"Attention all SHIELD agents, this is Steve Rogers," Steve's voice blared through the loudspeakers of the entire compound, interrupting the drink Pierce was having. "You've heard a lot about me and my friends over the last few days. Some of you were even ordered to hunt us down. But I think it's time you knew the truth."

He looked up at Vanitas, who nodded at him to continue.

"SHIELD is not what we thought it was," Steve continued. "It's been taken over by HYDRA. Alexander Pierce is their leader. He was a part of Maleficent's ploy to take over all worlds and return them to darkness."

Pierce walked around his board room in silent anger, and the board members quickly looked at the man in shock. He set his glass down on a table and shrugged his shoulders simply at the four.

"STRIKE and Insight crew are HYDRA as well," Steve continued. "We don't know how many more, but we know they're in the building. They could be standing right next to you. They almost have what they want. Absolute control. They shot Nick Fury. And it won't end there. If you launch those helicarriers today, HYDRA will be able to kill anyone that gets in their way and replace them with Heartless soldiers. Unless we stop them."

"I know I'm asking a lot," Steve admitted as turmoil actually started in the hanger levels between HYDRA scientists quickly taking control of the helicarriers from the SHIELD ones. "But the price of freedom is high. It always has been. And it's a price I'm willing to pay. And if I'm the only one, then so be it. But I'm willing to bet I'm not."

Sam smirked as Steve stood up straight, away from the microphone.

"Did you write that down first, or was that off the top of your head?" he quipped.

"Either, or, really," Vanitas remarked, smirk on his face. "The man's just that good at giving speeches."

"I gotta come to this world more often," Roxas decided, smirk on his face.

"Here, take this," Vanitas said, handing an M4 assault rifle to Maria. "Just in case."

Maria nodded her head and slung the rifle around her shoulder.

"You smug son of a bitch," Rockwell insulted Pierce.

Three STRIKE team members walked in and faced the board members.

"Arrest him," the bearded board member instructed them.

The lead STRIKE member instead pulled out his Glock handgun and pointed it at the man instead, to his detriment.

"I guess I've got the floor," Pierce quipped.

In the surveillance room for Insight, the head technician and Kate, Agent 13 watched as Brock Rumlow walked into the room and towards them.

"Preempt the launch sequence," Rumlow instructed the curly haired man. "Send those ships up now."

The technician looked up at Rumlow, then back at the computer, slight uncertainty on his face.

"Is there a problem?" Rumlow asked.

"Um..." the technician softly said as everyone in the room watched.

"Is there a problem?" Rumlow asked, more forcefully.

"I'm sorry, sir," the technician told him. He breathed in and out with visible fear on his face. "I'm not gonna launch those ships. Captain's orders."

"Move away from your station," Rumlow announced, pointing his handgun at the man's head.

"Like he said..." Kate announced, pointing her own handgun at Rumlow's head. More people started pulling out their handguns, and soon the security and agents were pointing their guns at each other. "...Captain's orders."

"You picked the wrong side, Agent," Rumlow informed her. He pressed the nozzle of the gun in the technician's head, and he raised his hands in defence.

"Depends on where you're standing," Kate countered.

Things were silent for a second before Rumlow sighed out and dropped his gun to the floor. He then quickly pulled a knife out of a sheath and slashed Kate's arm, making her drop her handgun, which he quickly caught. Kate quickly ducked as everyone in the room with guns started shooting at each other. Rumlow scared the technician away with gunfire, then clacked some keys on the computer to cause an override, setting off Project Insight now. Kate managed to grab another handgun and fired after Rumlow, who was quickly running from the room as the gunfire continued.

The river next to the Triskelion slowly got large, rectangular outlines as the panels leading to the hanger slowly opened up. In the hanger, pandemonium continued to escalate between actual SHIELD agents and agents that were really HYDRA, but nothing that could close the bay doors or stop the helicarriers. Heartless appeared in their designs of HYDRA agents and joined in the pandemonium. The bay doors continued to open, and the ships' thrusters still ignited.

"They're initiating launch," Maria informed the team from the station she was still in, working on a computer.

The first of the three helicarriers was slowly rising up into the air higher and higher. The four person team of Steve, Sam, Roxas, and Vanitas was running as quickly as they could across the road to where the bay doors and helicarriers were, past lots of quinjets. Steve was carrying his shield, and Roxas had already summoned his Keyblade.

"Hey, Cap, how do we know the good guys from the bad guys?" Sam asked Steve as they continued to run.

"If they're shooting at you, they're bad," Steve informed him.

"If they have the Heartless insignia, they're bad," Roxas added.

"That's usually a pretty good indication," Vanitas remarked. "Roxas, stick with the Captain. I'll cover Sam."

They got closer to the edge, and Sam turned on his Falcon Wings as Vanitas turned on his rocket shoes. The two flew in the air, so Roxas and Steve jumped off the ledge and rolled as they landed on a slowly rising helicarrier that wasn't above ground yet.

The two of them ran down the top of the helicarrier before they had to start dodging gunfire. Steve held up his shield while Roxas could just run.

"Fire!" Roxas yelled, shooting a large blast of Fira towards the soldiers.

The large blast of fire exploded, knocking down some soldiers while they ran behind some large object in defense. Steve quickly punched one soldier that got close to him a bit, knocking him out and taking a grenade he had. He then threw the grenade around the corner, causing a blast that knocked back the other soldiers. The two of them continued running down the path, trying to find the right way.

Sam and Vanitas, meanwhile, were flying past the bay doors and up to one of the helicarriers already in the air. They got close to the top, and the blasters on the top levels started blasting towards them. The two had to quickly dodge the blasts as they exploded in the air, missing the both of them. The explosions exploded in purple fire instead of red, signifying the darkness infused with the guns.

"Holy fuck!" Vanitas exclaimed.

"Hey, Cap, we found those bad guys you were talking about," Sam quipped into the earpiece.

"You guys okay?" Roxas asked in worry.

The two of them continued flying through the air, dodging the blasts from the giant guns with a little more difficulty than they'd prefer to admit.

"We're not dead yet," Sam quipped again.

Back in the conference room, Pierce watched from the large window as the helicarriers fired at the flying forms of Sam and Vanitas. He slowly turned from the window and started walking back towards the board members.

"Let me ask you a question," Pierce announced to the bearded member. He garnered the attentions of the board members as he placed down his phone and picked up another champagne glass. "What if Pakistan marched into Mumbai tomorrow, and you knew that they were going to drag your daughters into a soccer stadium for execution..." He handed the glass to the man, who reluctantly took it. "...and you could stop it, with the flick of a switch. Wouldn't you? Wouldn't you all?"

"Not if it was your switch," the bearded man informed him. He tossed aside the glass, which shattered on the ground.

Pierce chuckled slightly before taking the offered handgun of the lead STRIKE member. He pointed it right at the man, but then Hawley kicked him out of the way. She then knocked the gun out of Pierce's hand, before throwing an electric device at one of the guards. She then proceeded to beat the crap out of the three guards, knocking them all to the ground unconscious before taking the lead man's gun and pointing it at Pierce. She pressed a button on her temple, showing that it was the Photostatic Veil.

"I'm sorry," Natasha told him in the modulated voice. Natasha removed the Veil from her face and took off the wig, letting her real hair fall into place. "Did I step on your moment?"

She went to work as the helicarriers still continued to rise in the air. Maria checked out the window before going back to the computer to check.

"Falcon, Jordan, status?" she asked.

"Engaging," Sam informed.

"Luckily I'm an ordained minister," Vanitas quipped.

The two of them continued flying through the air, dodging lots of gunfire. Vanitas had to actually stop himself from laughing as they continued flying around in arcs around the helicarrier. The two of them got closer to the ship, and they both pulled out machine guns in preparation. Sam kicked one soldier, knocking him to the ground unconscious, while Vanitas fired at another one, knocking him down as well, while the two of them floated down over the top of the carrier.

"All right, Cap, we're in," Sam announced.

They looked around for an entrance before their attentions were drawn to a quinjet flying into view, towards them.

"Oh, shit," Sam exclaimed.

"Don't let Cap hear you say that!" Vanitas quipped again as they flew away from the quinjet that was firing at them.

The two of them flew under the wings of other quinjets, going down the line of ships while dodging gunfire. They reached the last one in the line, and the ship firing at them, blowing it up. The explosion knocked them to the ground, and Sam's Falcon wings retracted as they landed on the end of the line. Vanitas and Sam stood up and faced the approaching quinjet with their machine guns raised. They jumped off the ledge while firing through the glass of the cockpit windshield, causing some distress for the pilots as Sam's wings extended out again, and the two of them resumed their flight.

The two of them flew under the helicarrier, still being followed by the quinjet.

Meanwhile, Steve and Roxas were still fighting their way along the top of the ship they were on. Steve knocked aside soldiers easily with attacks from his fists, feet, and shield, while Roxas knocked them aside with spells and swings from his Keyblade, taking out humans and Heartless alike.

"Cap, Roxas, eight minutes," Maria informed them through the earpieces.

"Working on it," Steve informed her before catching his shield.

"We're getting there," Roxas added as he twirled his Keyblade around in style.

They went through a door that led them deeper into the helicarrier, prepared for anything they might find.

Meanwhile, back in the conference room, the asian member of the board, Singh, kept a handgun pointed at Pierce, who was eyeing his phone on the table, while Natasha worked at a nearby computer, with information flying around all over the giant, see through screen next to her.

"What are you doing?" Rockewell asked.

"She's disabling security protocols and dumping all the secrets onto the internet," Pierce explained, walking towards the redheaded woman with the gun still pointed at his back.

"Including HYDRA's," Natasha announced.

"And SHIELD's," Pierce informed her as she kept at work. "If you do this, none of your past is gonna remain hidden. Not Budapest, not Osaka, not the children's ward."

Natasha paused for a second and looked at Pierce in thought before continuing her work.

"Are you sure you're ready for the world to see you as you really are?" Pierce asker her.

"Are you?" Natasha countered.

"Well, look out the window," Pierce informed her, doing exactly that and looking back at her. "It doesn't matter what our enemies think about us anymore."

"That's why they're going down," Natasha informed him.

"Pretty high opinion of Rogers' and Jordan's chances," Pierce remarked.

"Clearly, you haven't been paying attention," Natasha rebutted with a slight smirk.

The helicarriers continued to rise as Steve and Roxas reached the right lowest level of the one they were in. They pressed the buttons on the keypad, and the glass plating opened up, showing the many disks in line. The right level retracted itself to them, and they pulled out the targeting blade and an extra disk. They replaced the blade with their own blade and the Light data chip. Once the data chip was inserted, it caused a large spark of white electricity, which surprised both of them.

"Whoa!" Roxas exclaimed.

"I guess this is why you don't mix magic with technology," Steve remarked.

"That was just the light adapting the the console," Maria informed them. "The guns are just regular guns, now. Now get moving!"

"Alpha lock!" Steve confirmed as they ran back down the walkway they came down.

As Maria watched, the one helicarrier they were on was suddenly outlined in green, signifying that it was done.

"Falcon, Jordan, where are you now?" she asked.

"We had to take a detour!" Sam exclaimed.

They continued dodging blasts from the quinjet's guns as they flew along underneath the large ship. The quinjet behind them then suddenly fired missiles targeted for the two, following them through the air.

"Oh, fuck missiles!" Vanitas exclaimed as they flew around the gigantic glass domed bottom of the ship.

"Don't let Cap hear you say that!" Sam threw his words back at him as they managed to get closer to the bottom of the ship.

They managed to get closer to the sides of the ship, tricking the missiles to hitting the outer shells of the gigantic carrier near them. The two of them then tricked the missiles even further by moving in front of the glass of the dome before turning off their flying devices to start falling. The missiles then hit the glass, giving them an opening before the two of them restarted their flying mechanics.

"Whoo!" Vanitas exclaimed.

"Oh, yeah!" Sam added in equal excitement.

The two of them flew in an arc around the ship before flying up through the hole in the glass and landed on the walkway.

"We're in," Sam announced.

Sam pressed the right buttons on the console and let the right level reach them. They replaced the targeting blade with their own and the light disk. Another white bit of electricity flowed through, signaling the light overtaking the darkness. Sam and Vanitas nodded at each other before having it move back into place. The two then jumped over the railing and reignited their flying devices, flying towards the hole in the glass again.

"Bravo lock," Sam announced.

"Two down!" Vanitas elaborated.

Maria watched on the screen as the helicarrier those two were on then outlined itself green, signifying that it was done.

"One to go," Maria added to Vanitas' words.

Meanwhile on the ground, SHIELD pilots started walking down the line towards quinjets, trying to serve as air support, before they were interrupted by the brainwashed Bucky. The Winter Soldier walked calmly down the path, taking them out with an assault rifle with a grenade launcher attached. He even took out many of the quinjets just to be sure before hijacking the last jet for himself. He took out the SHIELD pilot before getting into the other seat and flying it up himself.

Back in the conference room, Natasha reached an impasse when the screen announced that the information she was trying to upload was restricted access.

"Disabling the encryption is an executive order," Pierce informed her. "It takes two Alpha level members."

"Don't worry," Natasha assured him. "Company's coming."

A helicopter then appeared out of seemingly nowhere and landed on the landing pad attached to the top of the building, outside. The Council members and Pierce watched in amazement as Fury walked out of the chopper, through the walkway, and the door that led inside just outside the room. Singh and Brockwell were surprised, but Pierce just simply nodded his head as Fury walked into the room, expecting this just a bit.

Fury walked across the room with his left arm still in the sling, staring daggers at Pierce.

"Did you get my flowers?" Pierce simply asked. Fury just kept staring at him while Natasha went back to work at the console. "I'm glad you're here, Nick."

"Really?" Fury asked as he walked towards Pierce. "Because I thought you had me killed."

"You know how the game works," Pierce defended.

"So why make me head of SHIELD?" Fury asked.

"Because you were the best, and the most ruthless person I ever met," Pierce informed him.

"I did what I did to protect people," Fury informed him. "You did what you did as part of your conquest with that horned bitch."

"Our enemies are your enemies, Nick," Pierce told him. "Disorder. War. Maleficent was a means to an end. It's just a matter of time before a dirty bomb goes off in Moscow, or an EMP fries Chicago. Diplomacy? A holding action, Nick. A band-aid. And you know where I learned that. Bogota."

Fury raised his head higher as he stared at the man.

"You didn't ask," Pierce continued. "You just did what had to be done. I can bring order to the lives of seven billion people by sacrificing 20 million and making them Heartless. It's the next step, Nick. If you have the courage to take it."

"No," Fury remarked. "I have the courage not to."

He grabbed Pierce and dragged him to the large screen in the room, and Natasha continued her work.

" _Retinal scanner active_ ," the computer announced.

Natasha pulled out her own handgun and pointed it at Pierce, who chuckled as he looked at the two spies on either side of him.

"You don't think we've wiped your clearance from the system?" Pierce asked Fury, smugly.

"I know you replaced my password," Fury informed him. "Probably deleted my retinal scan. But if you want to stay ahead of me, Mr. Secretary..." He took off his eyepatch, revealing the scarred form of his eye, with a now grey pupil. "...you need to keep both eyes open."

Pierce just looked at Fury with indifference before following Fury's example. The two let the screen scan both of their eyes, running the diagnostics.

" _Alpha level confirmed_ ," the computer announced. " _Encryption code accepted. Safeguard removed._ "

Fury and Pierce looked at each other, anger still in their eyes. To say things were pretty hairy at this point was a major understatement. They only had a little bit of time left...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm starting to get a little upset that I'm not gonna do Civil War. I already liked the character of Sam before, but writing him in this story is making me like him even more


	11. Taking Bullets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team has one more helicarrier they have to take out...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really don't like doing super long chapters, because I always get paranoid about something happening when I get get far enough into it. So, I have to find a good point to split them up while I'm doing this

"Charlie carrier is 45 degrees off the port bow," Maria informed the team as they continued their work.

She looked up at one screen to see two HYDRA soldiers coming her way, along with three Heartless. Maria simply stood up and raised her handgun. The door burst open, and she took out each enemy with a single shot from her handgun, five shots taking all five of them out.

"Six minutes," Maria added as she walked around the room to her own again.

"Sam, V, we're gonna need rides," Steve said into the communicator as they ran across the top of the helicarrier, soldiers appearing behind them.

"Roger," Vanitas confirmed.

"Let us know when you're ready," Sam added.

The two jumped over the ledge just as one soldier fired a rocket launcher at them. Roxas and Steve were propelled forwards a bit more from the blast before they started falling through the air.

"We just did!" Roxas announced as they quickly fell.

Sam and Vanitas flew down quickly towards their falling friends. Vanitas grabbed Roxas by his Organization coat, and Sam grabbed Steve's free hand. Sam howled out as they flew up the air towards the last helicarrier and landed on the top. Sam retracted his wings as they walked along the installed road of the ship.

"You know, you're a lot heavier than you look," Sam informed Steve.

"I had a big breakfast," Steve joked.

"Might be all that muscle," Roxas remarked. "What, there's like, sixty pounds worth of abs you manage to hide from us?"

The team laughed at Roxas' joke as they walked down the road. They walked next to a big white thing next to them, and Bucky jumped out in front of them and tackled Steve through a railing. The man fell down the side slightly before catching on a gripping point.

"Steve!" Sam called out.

He deployed his wings and tried flying out, but Bucky caught a wing and threw him back, and he backflipped through the air to face Bucky. Vanitas reignited his boots and joined the man in the air. Roxas swung his Keyblade at the brainwashed man, which he ducked against. He then jumped into the air and did a long aerial combo, knocking back Bucky. Bucky then started backflipping as the flying Vanitas and Sam fired their machine guns at him.

Bucky then hid behind another large, white... thing, so Sam flew around to try to get a better look. The brainwashed man then fired a wire out of a device, which burst through Sam's right wing. He pulled back, causing Sam to land on his front on the helicarrier road. Bucky pulled again, and the wing came right off. Sam was, unfortunately, right at the edge of the carrier, so Bucky ran forwards and kicked him off. Sam cried out as he fell through the air.

"Sam!" Roxas called out before ducking an upwards punch from Bucky's metal arm.

"I got him!" Vanitas called out before flying down towards the falling man.

He pushed the thrusters on his sneakers even further, but it turned out he didn't need to do that. Sam just detached the remaining wing on his back and pulled the straps to release a parachute. He landed on the Triskelion roof with a yell, and Vanitas landed next to him.

"Cap!" Sam announced through the earpiece. "Cap, come in. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm here," Steve assured them as he started climbing up one of the wings on the side of the carrier. He got onto the wing and stood up. "I'm still on the helicarrier. Where are you?"

"I'm grounded," Sam told them. "The suit's down. Sorry, Cap." Sam looked at Vanitas next to him. "Can you..."

"You're a lot taller than me and Roxas," Vanitas informed him. He leaned in to whisper, "And I'm not really that strong without my enhanced strength, which hasn't acted up in like, two weeks. Roxas is just pretty thin, so it was easy to carry him. I don't think I can do you, buddy."

"Don't worry, Roxas and I got it," Steve assured them.

Steve then looked up to see Roxas screaming before landing roughly on the wing next to him. He looked up again to try to see Bucky, to no avail.

"You all right?" Steve asked, helping Roxas up.

"That arm is strong," Roxas told him, hand on his cheek, where Bucky no doubt had punched him.

The two walked down the length of the wing and towards a walkway, trying to find the way to the right part of the ship.

Looking back up in the air, Vanitas saw various quinjets still in the air causing problems.

"I got those," he announced, pulling out machine guns again.

He ignited his sneakers and flew up into the air to stop them.

Disarray continued to happen all around the Triskelion. Rumlow was taking out lots of agents he knew was SHIELD as he went through the higher levels of the compound.

"Sir, the council's been breached," a dispatch told him through the earpiece.

"Repeat, Dispatch," Rumlow requested.

"Black Widow's up there," Dispatch informed him.

"Heading up," Rumlow informed him.

Rumlow kicked open a door next to him and started up the stairs. Luckily, Maria was able to see the man going up the stairs on one of the monitors.

"Falcon?" Maria asked.

"Yeah?" Sam asked.

"Rumlow's heading for the Council," Maria told him.

"I'm on it," Sam informed her, taking off the leather garnet he had to wear with his gear.

On the final helicarrier, Steve and Roxas ran down the stairs, and down the walkway, but then stopped. Between them and the console with the targeting blades stood the still brainwashed Bucky, who stared at them with a handgun in both of his hands.

"People are gonna die, Buck," Steve told him. "We can't let that happen."

Bucky just stared at them blankly.

"Please don't make me do this," Steve begged.

"Try to remember, Bucky," Roxas added. He looked from Steve back to the man in front of them. "You said it yourself, you know him. Try to remember where that comes from."

Bucky just continued staring blankly at them. Steve sighed out in disdain.

"Tried the diplomatic solution," Roxas admitted. "Now for the fighting solution."

Steve threw his shield at Bucky, which deflected off of the metal hand. Bucky retaliated by firing his handguns, but the bullets deflected off of the shield. The two twirled around trying to make their attacks have a bit more oomph, before Bucky managed to shoot Steve in the side. Steve winced as the bullet grazed him, then knocked Bucky forwards with his shield.

A Heartless then appeared seemingly out of nowhere and landed behind them, so Roxas slashed through it quickly with his Keyblade before Bucky stood up and pulled out a knife. Steve and Bucky attacked each other with their weapons again for a bit, which made Roxas a little dizzy as he watched. Bucky's metal hand then deflected off of Steve's shield, causing the man to jump back wincing while Steve pressed the buttons to turn on the device.

Roxas covered Steve with his Keyblade as Bucky quickly recovered and swung his metal fist. Roxas caught it with his Keyblade and forced the hand into a railing, which bent from the impact. Bucky then punched Roxas in the face with his normal hand, knocking the blond back, so Steve took his place.

Steve and Bucky intercepted each others attacks once again before Steve caught both of his friends hands with his own and the shield. The two stood in that spot a bit before Steve managed to get the knife out of Bucky's hand. Once Bucky and Steve weren't interlocked, Roxas blasted Bucky with Aerora, knocking him back once again, giving Steve the chance to move to the level.

He pulled out the targeting blades and was about to pull out their own blade and data chip when Bucky popped back up. Bucky punched at Steve, which he defended with his shield, once again causing the gong noise. The two attacked each other, and Roxas tried to find a way to get an attack in as they went down the railing arcing around the large center of the room. Bucky forced Steve against the bent railing, and Roxas tried swinging at the brainwashed man's head. Bucky ducked and screamed as he tackled Steve over the railing and onto the lower part that looked like a wing.

"Steve!" Roxas called out before jumping over the railing.

They landed on the wing roughly, with Steve's shield falling down to the lower parts of the large area. The targeting blade and data chip landed on the wing like part, but Bucky stood between them and Steve and Roxas. Steve and Bucky grappled with each other, and Roxas tried running past them to get the blade and chip. But Bucky grabbed him with his metal hand and threw him back against the large center device.

Bucky then vaulted Steve forwards, and he slid down the wing looking part they stood on, grabbing the blade and chip. Bucky then slid down behind him and the two continued hitting each other. Roxas slid down the wing to join them and swung his Keyblade at Bucky. Unfortunately, he dodged and the Keyblade ended up knocking the chips out of Steve's hands, which ended up falling to the lower levels.

"Sorry," Roxas told him before Steve kicked Bucky off of the part they were standing on.

"No worries," Steve told him. "We all make mistakes."

Roxas nodded his head, and the two of them jumped off the wing part, going after the blade and the chip.

Back in the Triskelion conference room, Natasha stood at the computer once again as the screen read, "transfer completed." Pierce was standing next to the table and had grabbed his phone as Singh continued to point the handgun at him.

"Done," Natasha announced. Fury looked up at her. "And it's trending."

Pierce kept a blank look on his face before looking to the bearded man next to him. The pin that Pierce had given him was now burning through his chest. Pierce pointed his phone at Brockwell and Singh and pressed the button twice, and the pins on the two men's chests burned. The two men screamed out in pain as they fell to the ground. Natasha grabbed her Glock once again and pointed it at Pierce. Fury even took out his own handgun and pointed it at the man.

"Unless you want a two inch hole in your sternum, I'd put that gun down," Pierce threatened her, making his phone in his hand obvious. Natasha and Fury continued staring at him, guns raised. "That was armed the moment you pinned it on."

Pierce kept his thumb over the activate button, and the two agents were forced to put down their handguns.

Back on the helicarrier, Steve and Roxas ran along the glass floor below them towards the targeting blade and data chip. But then Steve's shield flew towards them thrown by Bucky, which hit both of them in the back, knocking them to the ground. Steve quickly picked it up and got on his feet to deflect gunfire from Bucky's remaining handgun. Roxas managed to dodge bullets with swipes from his Keyblade before Steve threw his shield at Bucky, which he deflected with his metal arm, knocking it back behind him.

Roxas used a combo attack with his Keyblade before Bucky caught the blade and tossed Roxas aside. Bucky and Steve then grappled with each other again, knife in his metal hand. Steve caught his old friend's hands, keeping the knife up in the air, before Bucky forced it down, stabbing the knife into Steve's shoulder. Steve cried out in pain and head butted Bucky twice before Bucky just threw him aside.

Steve pulled the knife out as Bucky got on the ground, reaching for the targeting blade and data chip. He got the targeting blade in his normal hand, but Roxas kicked him in the head and grabbed the data chip with his free hand.

Steve then grabbed Bucky by the neck and held him up in the air. When Bucky wouldn't let go, Steve slammed his old friend hard into the glass floor before forcing him onto his side, holding him in a position to try to force pressure against the arm.

"Drop it!" Steve ordered. "Drop it!"

When Bucky didn't comply, Steve twisted his friend's normal arm a bit more, causing him to howl out in pain. Bucky tried using his metal arm to hit Steve, then launched forwards. Steve now had his back against the ground, with Bucky on top of him. But Steve still had his arm around Bucky's neck, forcing him in a choke hold. When Bucky tried moving his metal arm forwards, Roxas swiped it with his Keyblade, and Steve forced it underneath his own leg, keeping it pinned.

Steve managed to keep Bucky in a choke hold for a few seconds, forcing the man to slip into unconsciousness and drop the targeting blade. Steve picked up the blade and he and Roxas started running up the glass floor.

Back outside, Vanitas was still taking out a lot of the quinjets in the air. Luckily, the pilots were Heartless, so he wasn't exactly murdering that many people. Eventually, the spare quinjets were all out of the sky, so he started flying back towards the Triskelion, wanting to help Sam and the others just in case.

"I'm on 41, heading towards the southwest stairwell," Rumlow announced into his earpiece, walking through a set of doors.

Sam then surprised the man from behind and punched the man in the face, knocking the gun out of his hand. He grabbed Rumlow by the neck and kneed him twice before Rumlow forced Sam's hands off of him. He linked his arms around Sam's and head butted him, then pushed him aside, onto the ground.

"This is gonna hurt," Rumlow announced, taking off the armor around his torso. "There are no prisoners with HYDRA. Just order. And order only comes through pain." Sam stood up and faced the smiling man with annoyance on his face. "You ready for yours?"

"Man, shut the hell up," Sam told him.

The two men rushed forwards and moved to punch each other in the face.

Back in the Council room, Pierce stood behind the computer station, Natasha and Fury staring at him as he talked on a radio.

"Lieutenant, how much longer?" Pierce asked.

"65 seconds to satellite link," a man on the radio informed him. "Targeting grid engaged. Lowering weapons array now."

The weapons on the lower parts of the helicarriers suddenly started deployed out, preparing to fire.

"One minute," Maria urgently announced on the intercom.

Roxas and Steve were parkouring their way up the center device of the room, jumping and climbing up the various parts. But then a gunshot rang out, hitting Steve in the leg. They stopped for a second and looked down to see Bucky standing once again, pointing his handgun at them. The two struggled to continue their climb, Roxas due to inexperience and Steve in pain, as Steve got shot in the arm. They managed to get up onto the railing, and Roxas half carried Steve to the main console, where the level was still waiting for them.

"30 seconds, Cap," Maria informed them over intercom.

"Stand by," Steve groaned, pulling out the targeting blade. He raised it up to the right point. "Charlie..."

One more gunshot rang out, hitting Steve in the back, causing him to fall back against the console. Roxas watched in shock as blood spilled through the front of Steve's suit.

"Roxas..." Steve said, weakly, handing the targeting blade to Roxas.

"I..." Roxas said with uncertainty. "I don't..."

"You might not understand technology," Steve told him. Unbeknownst to them, the targeting system was currently going online, setting the guns ready to fire at hundreds of thousands of targets, including Tony Stark. "But you have to do this. It's your turn to be a hero..."

With uncertainty still on his face, Roxas took the targeting blade and looked at the device in front of him. He moved to the level with the two empty slots, and inserted the targeting blade and data chip into them. Roxas jumped with fear on his face and his hands on his head as he looked up at the console in front of him.

"Charlie lock," Steve announced as the HYDRA members watching the targets were confused as the targets disappeared.

"Okay, Cap, Roxas, get out of there," Maria informed them as she hit a few more keys, changing the targets.

The target number changed from several hundred thousand to just three. The gigantic guns of the helicarriers directed towards each other, and the members watched in shock as they realized what the new targets were.

"Fire now," Steve instructed her.

"But, Steve..." Maria started to say.

"Do it!" Steve insisted. "Do it now!" He looked up at Roxas. "You should get out of here."

Roxas leaned down and struggled to help up Steve.

"Rule number one of having friends," he informed Steve. "Friends don't leave other friends to die."

Maria reluctantly turned up a gauge and set off the helicarriers to fire on each other. The many, many guns on the giant ships started firing at each other, causing gigantic normal explosions as opposed to the purple ones from earlier. The two exclaimed as the large room they were on started falling apart due to the explosions. Leaning against the railing, their attentions were drawn to the sound of screaming. Bucky had been pinned down against the glass floor by one of the large metal gears covering his legs and arms.

Back in the room on the 41st floor, Sam and Rumlow separated as their fighting was temporarily put on hold at the sight of the helicarriers blowing each other up. A window shattered nearby, behind Rumlow, and Vanitas flew into the room, landing on his feet.

"Good," Rumlow announced as Vanitas tossed aside his empty machine guns. "Now I can show both you guys..."

Vanitas cut the man off by pulling out his Colt handgun and firing it at both of Rumlow's legs. He cried out in pain as he fell to the ground.

"Dude, I never fight fair," Vanitas informed the man, who was clutching his legs in pain.

"Man, I could have used you a few minutes ago," Sam told him.

Back in the Council room, Pierce watched with disdain on his face as they all watched the helicarriers firing at each other.

"What a waste," he sighed out.

"So, you still on the fence about Rogers' and Jordan's chances?" Natasha asked him.

"Time to go, Councilwoman," Pierce announced, moving towards Natasha. "This way. Come on. You're gonna fly me out of here."

"You know," Fury announced as Pierce started leading Natasha across the room. "There was a time I would have taken a bullet for you."

"You already did," Pierce remarked, not noticing as Natasha pulled out one of her electric gears. "You will again, when it's useful."

Natasha used her gear, electrocuting herself quite a bit. Pierce watched in surprise as Natasha convulsed onto the floor, electricity still around her. Pierce looked down at his phone to see that it was recalculating due to the electricity shorting out a device, then turned to look at Fury. The man had pulled out a handgun from a fallen security guard and shot Pierce twice, blasting him through the glass screen and onto the floor, sending glass shards everywhere. Fury then hurried over to Natasha and crouched down over her.

"Romanoff," he called out. "Natasha." She was silent for a second, with her eyes closed. "Natasha! Come on!"

Natasha slowly opened her eyes and looked out.

"Ow," she softly said. She moved her head to the side a bit. "Those really do sting."

The two of them weakly started moving towards the helicopter outside as the helicarriers continued to fire at each other in the air. Enough damage had happened to them that they started falling down towards the water and the Triskelion. Pierce was still in his spot on the ground, looking up in shock.

"Hail HYDRA," Pierce weakly called out.

Suddenly, a familiar purple and black corridor opened nearby in the now empty room. Pierce looked down to see Pete walking out of the portal and towards him, disappointment on his face.

"Pete," Pierce weakly exclaimed. "Thank god. You have to get me out of here. Use the methods you have to patch me up..."

Pierce coughed twice as blood continued to pool out of the wounds on his chest and onto his shirt. Pete crouched down to look at Pierce better, disappointment still on his face."

"Sure, I could do that," Pete admitted. "But why should I?"

Pierce looked shocked.

"We're... all that's left... of Maleficent's league," Pierce insisted. "We need to continue the work..."

"Oh, don't you worry," Pete informed him, smile on his face as darkness started to grow on the ground below Pierce. "We'll still be continuing the work. Just... not in the way you expected."

"Wh-what?" Pierce weakly asked as the darkness grew into a pool underneath him.

"I said we were gonna use Project Insight to create an army of Heartless specifically for her conquest," Pete informed the man. "They're the soldiers... but we also needed a lieutenant for them. And what better person to use as a lieutenant than you?"

Pierce slowly understood, and anger started to grow on his face, making the pool of darkness underneath him grow bigger.

"You... son of a... bitch," Pierce weakly got out as the darkness started to cover his limbs.

"Good, feed that anger," Pete informed him, standing up. "Don't you worry, Alex, old buddy. You're gonna make one _beauty_ of a Heartless."

The anger slowly turned into a smug smirk that made Pete uncomfortable. Turning slightly, he saw the destroyed helicarriers start to get closer to the building.

"Holy bejesus, I've gotta get the heck out of here!" Pete exclaimed in fear.

Pete turned and ran towards a dark corridor that appeared and disappeared as soon as he ran through it. Pierce continued to stare out smugly as the pool of darkness grew bigger and eventually covered his face...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That something extra I wanted to do in this story that relates more to the KH series? Well...


	12. To The End Of The Line

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roxas and Steve save Bucky, but there's still one more enemy to face...

Pandemonium was still happening all over the place as the burning helicarriers started falling towards the ground. Debris was falling to the ground, causing smaller rate explosions before one of the giant ships crashed into the bay doors, flooding and helping destroy the gigantic hanger.

In the Charlie helicarrier, Steve and Roxas managed to get down to the glass floor where Bucky was still pinned down by the gigantic metallics that were attached to walls. With Steve still wounded from the bullets, they slowly made their way across the glass floor, while Bucky stared at them in confusion before resuming trying to get the metal off of him.

Back on the 41st floor, Sam and Vanitas were standing over the wounded Rumlow, who was leaning against one of the tables with computers.

"You're still out of your depth, kid," the wounded man informed Sam.

The two allies turned to smile at him, but those smirks faded as they saw the giant, burning helicarrier falling towards them. They immediately turned and started running. Rumlow looked behind himself as well, and jumped in surprise at the sight.

"Son of a bitch!" he called out as he started limping after them.

The carrier continued breaking through the building, and Rumlow was quickly caught in the falling debris. Sam and Vanitas ran as fast as they could along the floor, away from the falling apart building and the falling helicarrier that was causing it all.

"Please tell me you got that chopper in the air!" Sam yelled into the earpiece as they continued running.

"We're really depending on it!" Vanitas added as they kept running.

"Sam, V, where are you?" Natasha asked over the intercom as they had to do aerobics to dodge the falling pillars and other debris.

"41st floor!" Sam called out as they resumed running. "Northwest corner!"

"Hurry the hell up!" Vanitas yelled.

"We're on it!" Natasha informed them. "Stay where you are!"

"Not an option!" Sam yelled as they continued running from falling debris.

Fury flew the helicopter up to where they estimated the 41st floor was, and prepared. Sam and Vanitas ran towards the window just as the debris started to pick them up. The two jumped through the window, and the helicopter shifted slightly so that they fell into it. The door on the left side broke off, but Fury quickly leveled them as they hovered in the air.

"41st floor!" Sam repeated to Fury as he pointed at the building. "41st!"

"It's not like they put the floor numbers on the outside of the building!" Fury rebutted.

Vanitas was about to add a remark before he saw that Natasha was back in her Black Window suit. His attention was immediately drawn to the low cut nature of the outfit, but then the shaking of the helicopter in the air. He'd have to push _those_ thoughts aside for later.

The helicopter continued flying, trying to get out of the way of the still crashing helicarrier through the building.

"Hill, where are Steve and Roxas?" Natasha asked through her headset. "You got a location on Rogers and the Nobody?"

Unbeknownst to them as they flew past the helicarrier that was in the building, the two of them were on the glass floor of that specific helicarrier, struggling to make the metal on top of Bucky rise. After a few seconds of struggling that consisted of Steve doing most of the work, they managed to lift up the metal high enough for Bucky to crawl out. He turned back to face Steve and Roxas, who were in turn, looking at him.

"You know me," Steve insisted to Bucky.

"No, I don't!" Bucky angrily and desperately denied, knocking them both aside with his metal arm.

Looking up, Roxas saw that the large ship they were in was slowly but surely moving past the destroyed building and was starting to move to the lake nearby. He and Steve stood up and faced Bucky again.

"Yes... you do," Roxas insisted, raising his hands in surrended.

"Bucky," Steve added, looking at his friend. "You've known me your whole life."

Bucky cried out in denial again and once again knocked them aside with his metal arm. The helicarrier started to move through the air between the two bridges.

"Your name is James Buchanan Barnes," Steve told Bucky again.

"Buchanan?" Roxas asked in confusion.

"Shut up!" Bucky denied once again, knocking them aside again, this time knocking them to the ground.

Steve weakly stood up with the help of Roxas, and they faced Bucky again. Steve took of his mask and placed it on the ground, facing the still in denial Bucky.

"I'm not gonna fight you," Steve informed his friend, placing his shield down. It fell through a hole in the glass into the lake. "You're my friend."

Bucky roared again and tackled both of them to the ground, straddling Steve.

"Some friend," Roxas commented.

"You're my mission," Bucky denied, before punching Steve in the face multiple times with his metal arm. "You're... my... mission!"

Bucky got up on one knee and looked down at Steve with his metal arm raised in a fist.

"Then finish it," Steve weakly told him. Roxas was on his back next to Steve and watched all of this with wide eyes. "'Cause I'm with you till the end of the line."

As Roxas watched, Bucky continued to stare at Steve with his fist raised. The man continued staring at Steve for a few seconds, and Roxas saw the rage and anger slowly turn into surprised recognition. Before anyone could do anything else, a large part of the central device broke off and fell onto the window next to them, shattering it. Steve and Roxas started falling towards the water while Bucky held onto a metal gear with his metal arm.

The two of them hit the water, and slowly started to slip into unconsciousness. They slowly started to sink in the water with all the debris before another person dove into the water after them and grabbed them.

Near the shore of the river a drenched Bucky dragged the bruised and bloodied form of Steve and the unconscious Roxas up through the water, and set them down on the shore. Roxas almost immediately gasped awake and looked up in surprise to see Bucky standing over them, looking down at Steve, still in surprise and recognition, but now with a little bit of shame.

"He's still breathing," Roxas announced, slowly sitting up, and looking between the two. "So, he's still alive."

Bucky said nothing as he continued to stare down at Steve. He then turned and just as wordlessly started to walk into the forest.

"Bucky!" Roxas called out, making the man stop and face him. "I know they had you do a lot of bad stuff for them... but that wasn't you. Despite everything, you saved our lives just now. So... thank you."

Bucky said nothing as he continued to stare at Roxas. Slowly, he offered a single nod of the head before walking off into the woods. Roxas looked to where the man was standing down at the still unconscious Steve.

"That was him," he assured his friend. "Not the Winter Soldier. You got through to him... and you can't hear me while unconscious, can you?"

Roxas pressed the button of his earpiece, and found himself a little surprised it still worked despite the fact it was pretty wet.

"We're alive, guys," he announced. "We're still alive."

"Hell, yeah!" Vanitas called into the helicopter. "Give us your location, and we'll meet you there!"

"We're on a shore of this river," Roxas instructed. "Just outside..."

He slowly stopped as something started to feel off.

"Just outside what?" Vanitas asked, before something started to feel off to him, as well.

"Guys?" Natasha announced. "You're gonna wanna see this."

The guys in the helicopter followed her gaze to the Triskelion. Darkness started to surge out of the floor they recognized as the council room. Tendrils quickly shot out of the floor and into the water of the river, causing a big, black circle to slowly grow in the water. The tendrils eventually stopped, and the circle eventually disappeared.

"What the hell was that?" Sam asked.

"I don't know," Vanitas admitted. "But I know it wasn't good."

Their attentions were drawn back to the water as a gigantic, purple, scaly leg popped out of the water and landed on one of the bridges, stopping traffic immediately. Another giant, scaly leg popped through the water and landed further down the bridge from the other one. The helicopter group and Roxas pretty far away watched as three, large, purple scaled serpent heads with lion like manes and very sharp teeth as long as an arm erupted from the water, leading down to a large body that was connected to the already present legs on the bridge. The Heartless insignia was on the giant monster's back, which roared out to anyone around it.

"What the hell is that?" Fury asked, in equal shock as the rest of them.

Vanitas was quickly able to figure it out.

"That's Pierce," he answered. "As he died, his heart was consumed by all the darkness within him. And well... he was one of Maleficent's lackeys, so I guess that means he had a lot of darkness."

"Well, that makes sense," Sam admitted. "But what the hell is he?"

Vanitas cocked an eyebrow in equal confusion for a second before he figured it out.

"When they turn into a Heartless, they change into something relating to what they were in life," Vanitas reminded them. "He's a hydra."

"Well, that kind of makes, _sense_!" Natasha exclaimed.

They quickly had to move the helicopter aside as the longest hydra head snapped at them. Fury moved the chopper around as they dodged attacks from the giant monster's head, which included the middle one breathing blasts of darkness at them.

"Roxas!" Vanitas yelled into the earpiece.

"Down the river!" Roxas confirmed. "I can see the Heartless, but not you guys."

Vanitas nodded his head and looked down at the Vortex Manipulator on his arm.

"To hell with the battery," he decided.

He pressed the buttons and disappeared in a flash of light. After a few seconds, he reappeared with Roxas.

"Can our weapons even harm that thing?" Natasha asked, looking from the Heartless in the water to Vanitas.

"They can piss him off," Vanitas informed her. "But only one of us has a weapon that can destroy him."

Roxas summoned his Keyblade and showed it to the others to elaborate the point.

"We'll go with you," Sam told him.

"No," Vanitas denied. "We'll be down there alone, and we're more accustomed to blasts from darkness. One of those things could corrupt your hearts in seconds because you don't have the spells to defend yourselves from it. Roxas and I go down and face it ourselves."

"We can't just sit here and let you guys do it alone!" Natasha told him.

"You won't," Vanitas assured them. He removed some guns from his sling and strapped them across his body before removing his sling and passing it to Sam. "You cover us from up here with the guns in that. And I expect each and every gun in there accounted for when you give that back to me."

He pointed at Natasha and Sam to emphasize his point.

"You got it, boss," Sam assured him, pulling out a sniper rifle.

Natasha went the more destructive route and pulled out the grenade launcher.

"Watch your backs," Fury told the two with crazy hair.

"You, too," Roxas told the others in the chopper.

Roxas and Vanitas nodded their heads at their friends, who nodded their heads back before they both placed their hands on Vanitas' Vortex Manipulator, disappearing in light. The two of them reappeared on the bridge, facing the giant hydra in front of them.

"Hey, asshole!" Vanitas called out.

"Down here!" Roxas added, waving his arms with Vanitas.

The three hydra heads stopped following the helicopter and looked down in confusion at the two in front of it on the bridge. The confusion changed into anger as the heads roared at the two world travelers facing them.

"Hey, you get to take out that dark presence," Vanitas assured Roxas, holding a SPAS 12 in one hand and a .22 Magnum revolver (the situation pretty much called for it) in the other.

"Not what I was expecting," Roxas admitted, standing in a battle stance.

One of the heads charged at them, and they scattered away. The head slammed onto the road, and stayed there for a few seconds. Just enough time for Vanitas to blast the shotgun at it on once side and Roxas to use a combo attack from the other side. The head lifted itself up off of the road and rose back to join the other two heads in growling at them from up in the air. One of the giant claws suddenly raised up off the bridge and turned perpendicular with the road. Roxas and Vanitas jumped up into the air as the claw swiped across the road, missing them but hitting some cars, knocking them aside.

The two of them rolled on the ground before standing up straight to face the Heartless once again. One of the heads quickly charged at Roxas, and he moved aside quickly. Seeing an opening, Roxas slashed at the neck, severing it quickly. The severed head fell onto the road before it disappeared in a cloud of black smoke.

"Oh, shit!" Vanitas exclaimed.

He raised one hand and pointed a finger, but then was knocked aside as a head swung like a bat and knocked him down the road roughly. Roxas looked from his fallen friend to where the neck was slowly raised up into the air. In what looked like what Vanitas said was Mitosis, the neck slowly and grossly burst into two before regrowing more of itself, and the two necks grew more heads.

"Like Zola said," Vanitas announced, standing up with some difficulty due to his weapons in his hands. "Cut off one head, two more grow back."

"Then how do we stop this thing?" Roxas asked, dodging it as one of the hydra feet stomped on the ground where he was just seconds ago.

"We wear down the heads," Vanitas informed his friend, firing the .22 at one of the heads. "Cut them off, then burn the stumps. That stops them from growing back!"

Roxas nodded his head in affirmation before rolling out of the way of another head slamming onto the ground. The crew in the helicopter covered them, Sam with the rifle and Natasha with the grenade launcher. Vanitas fired another shot at the downed head with his shotgun before Roxas used an aerial combo. The head woozily lifted itself up off the ground, and Natasha fired another shot with the grenade launcher. The explosion blew up one head, but apparently didn't burn the stump enough because the neck quickly started to grow a twin. The other heads kept both Roxas and Vanitas too occupied with its attacks, stopping them from being able to burn the stump, so two more heads quickly grew from the bare neck again.

"Damn it!" Roxas and Vanitas exclaimed at once.

Vanitas fired another shot from the .22 at one of the heads before two flew in close at once. Vanitas dodged as one bit at him, then smacked the other in the face with his shotgun. Roxas then ran to his friend's defense and slashed upwards, taking off one of the heads. Vanitas moved quickly and dropped the .22, blasting fire at the stump. The hydra screamed out in pain as the bare neck backed away from them before falling down, dead.

"One down," Vanitas announced.

"Four to go," Roxas added.

Another shot from Sam's sniper rifle knocked one of the middle heads onto the bridge, mewling out woozily. Roxas quickly slashed off that head and turned to blast Fira to the stump, making that one die as well. There were now only three heads facing them.

The middle head then breathed out darkness once again, sending the two friends behind a car in defense. They exclaimed as they watched the darkness slowly wither away the side of the car opposite from them. Vanitas jumped up in a risk and fired his shotgun, causing a blast that made it cry out in pain. Roxas then jumped up again and raised his Keyblade.

"Thunder!" he called out before sending up a strike of electricity.

The lightning came down and struck the middle head hard, causing it to fall onto the bridge woozily. Roxas ran forwards to try to cut it off, but he was stopped when the other two heads got close and growled at him. One bit at Roxas' which he intercepted with his Keyblade. The other head lunged at Roxas, but Vanitas ran up and punched it in the face, knocking it away from his friend. He then raised his shotgun again and fired, causing that one to fall onto the bridge woozily, as well.

Roxas then slashed at the head he was facing, cutting it off, then just as quickly blasting fire on the stump. The neck fell back with the others, dead, leaving two left. Sam dded fire with his sniper rifle, keeping the one head on the ground while the other rose back into the air. Vanitas kicked the head to keep it down while Roxas brought the hand down like an axe, severing it. Vanitas blasted fire at the stump from his free hand, killing it and making the neck fall with the others into the water.

"One left!" Roxas announced.

"Let's get it!" Vanitas exclaimed.

The remaining head then started blasting more darkness out of its mouth at them, forcing them to move behind another car in defense.

"I think it'll be hard for us to get it when it keeps shooting this crap at us!" Roxas exclaimed.

Vanitas looked around in thought before he found another car not too far away. It wasn't that too badly damaged from all this, so it would work as a projectile.

"Sam, Nat," Vanitas yelled into the earpiece. "Get that thing's attention! I've got an idea."

"Is it a good idea?" Sam asked.

"Probably not," Vanitas admitted. He looked at Roxas. "Get ready."

Natasha replaced the grenade launcher with an AK-47 assault rifle, and the two of them fired at the last head, slowly getting its attention. Fury then flew the helicopter around in the air as the head shot out its darkness breath at them. Having been given the opportunity, Vanitas ran towards the remaining car and prepared himself. He lifted his foot and kicked the car as hard as he could...

And it didn't go anywhere. Instead, he was pretty sure he broke a couple of toes.

"You were hoping your super strength would act up?" Roxas asked.

"Yep," Vanitas told him, tapping his foot on the ground to try to ease the broken bones. "Looks like we're doing this the hard way."

Vanitas tapped into his inner mind, causing a lot of pain and giving him the usual nosebleed. He grabbed the car by the bumper and lifted it up in the air easily, but he was blind due to the pain.

"Roxas!" he called out.

Roxas understood his situation, and turned Vanitas so he was facing the hydra head, with the car still in the air above his head.

"Now!" Nat called out on the intercom.

Vanitas complied and threw the car as hard as he could at the head, and it had the impact he was hoping for. The car smacked into the head really hard, causing it to fall onto the road very woozily. Roxas ran forwards quickly and slashed off the head before blasting Fira at the stump, finishing it off.

The bare neck rose up into the air before falling down to join the others. The two large feet patted the ground for a few seconds to try to find the bearings before they gave up and slipped into the water. Everyone watched as the hydra's dead body fell into the water, being completely covered. Bright light then erupted from below the water, and a crystal looking heart flew up through the water and disappeared high in the air. Just like that, Pierce and his Heartless were gone.

"Good riddance," Roxas told the water.

"Thank the gods I know so much about mythology," Vanitas remarked.

"Fantastic," Fury's voice appeared over the intercom. "Now, you mind telling us where Rogers is?"

"Come pick us up," Roxas told Fury over the intercom. "I'll show you guys."

Fury did exactly that and picked them up in the chopper. As they flew through the air to try to find where they left Steve, none of them noticed a Dusk perched on the bridge, hiding pretty well. The Dusk disappeared in a purple portal, ready to report everything it just saw...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That scene between Steve and Bucky on the helicarrier, "till the end of the line", is such a great scene. The fact that he wouldn't fight his friend anymore, and his words broke Bucky out of the HYDRA brainwashing was just so amazing. It's such a good friendship scene it actually belongs in Kingdom Hearts! Just another factor that makes me kind of sad I won't be doing Civil War. But, I can live with it


	13. A Quick Goodbye And A Long Put Off Reunion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After tying up a few loose ends, Roxas and Vanitas say goodbye to Sam, Natasha, and Steve... You know, for now...

In the Round Room in the Castle That Never Was, the leader, Xemnas was watching the footage provided by a Dusk with his most loyal followers, Xigbar and Saïx. They watched as Roxas and Vanitas took on the giant Heartless hydra together, with help from people shooting in a helicopter. The duo eventually managed to cut off all the heads, and the hydra fell into the water, releasing its heart into the air.

"Well, _this_ certainly is an interesting development," Xemnas remarked.

"So what do we do now?" Saïx asked.

"We grill Roxas for everything he knows about Vanitas," Xigbar announced. "He played the dumb game when we brought him up in the meeting, and he clearly knows enough to fight along side him like this. From the looks of it, it isn't there first time fighting together, either."

"Have care," Xemnas announced, getting their attentions. "Remember, Roxas is our only other link to the Keyblade. And from Saïx's reports, we can't rely too much on our other one. We need to keep Roxas intact if we are to complete Kingdom Hearts."

"So what will we do?" Saïx asked.

"You will take the Nobodies from the other worlds," Xemnas instructed him. "And only focus them on Earth 616. It should be no coincidence that the first time we send Roxas there, Vanitas is there with him. Do not send Roxas there again, otherwise he will interfere with the case."

"So we just leave Roxas alone?" Xigbar asked, annoyed.

"To keep him safe for our plans," Xemnas informed him. "After all, where are we gonna get another vessel like him?"

* * *

Back on Earth 616, they found Steve pretty easily and took him to a hospital, where they got right to work on fixing his injuries. During their time there, the doctor that had helped them earlier back in the bunker insisted on running full body scans on Roxas and Vanitas with a small device after everything they had been through. The two begrudgingly agreed, and lied to the man in their promise that they'd stay in town until the results finished processing over the next few days.

The two of them sat with Sam in the hospital room, watching over Steve in his recovery. Sam sat in a chair on Steve's right, reading a book. He had a phone leaned up on a counter playing Martin Gaye's Trouble Man, to Roxas and Vanitas' confusion. He ended up being so engrossed in his book that he never noticed Steve slowly waking up and looking around in confusion. Then again, Roxas and Vanitas didn't notice it, either, because Vanitas was once again showing a downloaded episode of Doctor Who to his friend. Steve just looked at Sam before looking forwards again.

"On your left," he softly announced, getting the attention of his friends.

Sam, Roxas, and Vanitas looked up at the Captain in the bed and smiled at him.

Roxas and Vanitas stuck around for the recovery situation a bit. Vanitas managed to inform them of some of what was happening in response to all of this. He told them that Kate, or, Agent 13, managed to escape alive and was now working for the CIA, Maria was applying for a new job in Stark Industries Human Resources department, but Rumlow was somehow still alive.

They didn't need Vanitas to tell them how Natasha was at a meeting with some important government people, who questioned why they should still trust her and Steve after everything that happened. Natasha informed them it was because they needed them, which is why they weren't gonna throw them in prison, and left the room.

Fury left and burned the remaining bits of his identification, and the four of them met him in a graveyard, where they looked over a grave marked for him. Steve and Sam were in civilian clothes while Fury wore a hoodie under a leather jacket and sunglasses, Vanitas continued to wear his robes he got from Theodin, with his face uncovered, and Roxas still wore his Organization coat.

"So, you've experienced this sort of thing before," Fury told Steve.

"You get used to it," Steve assured the man.

"We've been data mining HYDRA's files," Fury informed them. "Looks like a lot of rats didn't go down with the ship. I'm heading to Europe tonight. Wanted to ask if you'd come."

"There's something I got to do first," Steve told him.

"How about you, Wilson?" Fury asked. "Could use a man with your abilities."

"I'm more of a soldier than a spy," Sam admitted.

"I'd offer, but..." Roxas started. "I have prior arrangements. Sorry."

"And I gotta make sure he doesn't get himself killed unknowingly fighting another one of my friends," Vanitas remarked. "Sorry, Nick. I want to help, but... I keep getting pulled away by other arrangements."

"Life of a Keyblade wielder," Fury sighed out. "Never get a vacation, eh?"

"Don't I know it," Vanitas remarked, looking down and shaking his head.

"All right, then," Fury relented, looking down at his gravestone. He turned towards the four and offered his hand, which they took turns in shaking. "If anybody asks for me, tell them they can find me, right here."

"You got it, Nick," Roxas told him.

"You should be honored," Natasha announced with a file in her hand, getting their attentions as Fury walked away. "That's about as close as he gets to saying thank you."

"Not going with him?" Steve asked as he, Roxas, and Vanitas walked towards her, Sam hanging back.

"No," Natasha confirmed with a smile on her face.

"Not staying here?" Vanitas asked.

"Nah," Natasha confirmed. She looked to the side before looking at them again. "I blew all my covers, I got to go figure out a new one."

"That might take a while," Roxas commented.

"I'm counting on it," Natasha assured the trio before looking down at the file in her hand. "That thing you asked for, I called in a few favors from Kiev."

Steve took the offered file and looked down at it intently.

"Will you do me a favor?" Natasha asked. "Call that nurse."

"She's not a nurse," Steve informed her, smile on his face.

"And you're not a SHIELD agent," Natasha countered.

"What was her name again?" Steve asked.

"Sharon," Natasha told him. "She's nice."

"Oh, so 'Kate' was a lie," Vanitas muttered loudly.

Steve and Natasha smiled at each other for a second before she reached up and kissed him on the cheek. She nodded at Roxas, and looked at Vanitas in thought.

"Just this once," Natasha told Vanitas.

Vanitas raised an eyebrow in confusion before she leaned in and kissed him on the lips. He practically froze up and stared at her with wide eyes as she parted from him.

"Good luck sleeping tonight," Natasha joked before she turned and started walking away.

"It was just as I imagined," Vanitas softly said, awestruck.

"Be careful, Steve," Natasha said, looking back over her shoulder at Steve. "You might not want to pull on that thread."

"When's that ever stopped him?" Roxas asked.

"Good point," Natasha admitted, turning and continuing to walk out of the cemetery.

"Well, I guess this is it," Roxas said, looking up at his taller friends as Sam walked over to join them. "Man, I wish I didn't have to leave this world, yet."

"I was that same way after New York," Vanitas admitted.

"We'll see each other again," Steve assured Roxas. "A lot of things tend to happen around here, so I'm sure we'll cross paths sooner or later."

"Here's hoping sooner," Sam commented.

Steve and Sam took turns shaking Roxas and Vanitas's hands good bye before Roxas opened a dark corridor. He turned and smiled at the two one more time before nodding his head.

"To the next time," Roxas said.

"To the next time," Steve, Vanitas, and Sam repeated, nodding their heads.

Roxas walked through the dark corridor as Vanitas disappeared in a flash of light with his Vortex Manipulator. The dark corridor disappeared seconds later. Steve then opened the file in his hands and looked at a picture of Bucky in cryogenic sleep along with a page of notes in foreign writing.

"You're going after him," Sam assessed, standing on Steve's side behind him.

"You don't have to come with me," Steve informed him.

"I know," Sam said. He looked at Steve. "When do we start?"

* * *

Maria had a surprise visit by the doctor that helped them in the bunker on her first day of work. He claimed he had important information he needed to talk to her about.

"Is there any chance you have a way to contact Vanitas Jordan and Roxas?" the doctor asked her.

"No, they tend to go very far distances on their quests," Maria informed him. "Why?"

"The results of those scans I gave them came back," the doctor told her, pulling out the papers. "The results were to be expected with Vanitas. But they were much different with his friend, Roxas."

"Well, that's to be expected," Maria informed him. "He is a Nobody, after all. He doesn't have a heart."

"But that's exactly what the problem is," the doctor informed her, showing her the results. "The scan was a thorough one, so it was able to make out..."

Maria read over the results, not sure what to expect, until she read...

"A heartbeat?" she asked, eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

Maria looked up at the man in confusion.

"It wasn't easy to find," the doctor admitted. "It almost seems like the heartbeat was hidden, so only the advanced technology could find it, but it was there."

"But... that doesn't make any sense," Maria remarked. "If he's a Nobody, and Nobodies don't have hearts... then how can he have a heartbeat?"

"Maybe he does have a heart, but he just doesn't know it," the doctor suggested.

Maria thought about that for a second, before she realized that that actually made sense.

"I need to get in contact with Vanitas Jordan," Maria announced.

* * *

As they made their way to the clock tower in Twilight Town, Vanitas had visions of stuff happening back on Earth. First, he saw some guy named Strucker who was in charge of HYDRA labs somewhere, and they were using Loki's scepter from New York to do their experiments. The only survivors of the volunteers were a pair of twins, a guy with long, brown hair running around faster than he could see in a cell, and a girl levitating wooden blocks into the air with red energy coming out of her hands. Strucker called them miracles, saying, "There is nothing more frightening that a miracle." The girl then made the block into a large thing of spiked wood with her mind before the vision shifted.

Bucky was in the Smithsonian museum, going through the Captain America exhibit in civilian clothes and a hat as a disguise. He looked over the part describing himself, pretty intently, and the vision ended.

"Trouble?" Roxas asked as they walked up the stairs.

"Nothing we can't put off for a while," Vanitas assured his friend.

They reached the top step, and Roxas just stopped. He stared forwards at the corner they turn around to reach their usual spot on top of the tower with trepidation. Vanitas could tell what his friend was thinking and put a hand on his shoulder.

"They're still there," he assured Roxas. "Things are still as we left them. For us, it's been a few days. But for them, the last time they saw you was just some hours ago."

"R-right," Roxas agreed, nodding his head. He looked up at Vanitas. "Right."

The two of them walked around the corner to see Axel and Xion in their usual spots, staring out at the sunset in front of them. Roxas was sure that if he had a heart, it'd be soaring in his chest in delight at the sight of his two friends.

"Hey, Roxas," Xion greeted. "Hey, V."

"What's up, guys?" Vanitas waved.

"You all right, Roxas?" Axel asked, seeing the blonde still surprised. "Something happen since we saw you this morning?"

"V, what are you wearing?" Xion asked, eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

Vanitas and Roxas looked at each other before laughing slightly. Roxas looked from the smiling ravenette to his friends staring at him curiously.

"You will _not_ believe what we went through today."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And there's a new record for the shortest amount of time I've finished a multi-chapter story. And a new record for longest MCU heavy story. I mean, can you blame me? This is one of the better movies in the series. I put it in my top ten. It was the first one the Russo Brothers did, which led to them doing Civil War, Infinity War, and Endgame. They are just great directors. Anyway, the next project will be completing the Days storyline, and then I'm gonna jump the gun a bit. You'll see what I mean when I get there. And the bad guy turning into a Heartless trick when they die... I will use that again in one or two of the other MCU stories. I didn't exactly get the opportunity in the last two because Loki never died (in that movie), and Malekith died on a completely other planet. I wanna experiment some more... and that's a pretty good experiment.


End file.
